


Tokyo Afterschool Nonary Games

by CustardAlvis



Series: Tokyo Afterschool Summoners x Zero Escape [1]
Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), 東京放課後サモナーズ | Tokyo Afterschool Summoners | Housamo
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-07-20 09:34:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 43,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16134539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CustardAlvis/pseuds/CustardAlvis
Summary: Asuka finds herself caught in a deadly game with 8 other people she's familiar with. What's the reason behind all this, and how will she escape with all of her friends?





	1. Introductions and Intrigue

**Author's Note:**

> MC, or the protagonist character, will be referred to as Asuka.
> 
> As of the 2nd of February, 2019, Ahab's dialogue was updated to closer match the way he speaks in game.

_Ah- Captain Ahab? What are you doing here- and in nothing but a swimsuit-! Why don’t I just get a little closer-_

**Beep. Beep. Beep.**

Asuka was broken out of her sleep but kept her eyes shut tight. Try as she might, she couldn’t will herself back into the dream.

_Ugh… five more minutes… I was so cloooose…_

She rolled over, moving further under the covers, trying to shut the beeping out of her head.

_Gah… Why did I even buy an alarm clock…? Was it because Mr. Mononobe told me-_

_Hold on a minute._

Her eyes shot open. Something wasn’t right. That beeping was far too high pitched for an alarm clock. Slightly more importantly, she didn’t even own one in the first place.

She was in what looked like some sort of hotel room. There were two beds, both with some remarkably ugly blankets. These blankets were dark gray, but had an intricate zigzagging design on them in a vibrant dark blue. It seemed as if it were specifically designed to hurt to look at. There weren't any pillows in sight, however. There was a single bedside table between the two beds. On it was a lamp and a small box, and under it appeared to be a drawer. The beeping was much more noticeable over here, but the drawer wouldn’t open. Above the table was a rather bizarre looking picture. It looked like a random jumble of colors, with no rhyme or reason to their arrangement.

_Maybe this is some sort of modern art hotel?_

Beyond the bed, there was another lamp in the corner, sitting behind an armchair that, despite the design of the bed and painting, looked very normal. Just a beige leather armchair, perhaps a little bigger than usual, but aside from that it was very… normal. There was also a small desk with a few sheets of blank paper. Asuka picked them up and turned them over. Nothing.

_Why would there just be these papers laying out? I don’t see anything to write on them with…_

She checked her pockets- nothing. Well, nothing except her phone. Something was off about it, however. Rather than the usual background that she had set- a picture of Captain Ahab she had taken the last time they were at sea together- the screen was black with the number zero emblazoned on the screen in bright red. None of her buttons did anything.

_Zero? Well, I guess it could be a circle too. Ah well._

Asuka put the papers back down, stuck her phone back in her pocket, and turned her attention to the front of the room. Across from the beds was a 3 drawer dresser with a small, bulky, old-timey TV sitting on it. It even had the little bunny-eared antennas and everything. There were no windows, but there was a door leading to what was presumably the outside. As far as she could tell, there weren’t any other doors.

_Hey, what if I need to use the bathroom, huh? What kind of hotel room doesn’t even have that?_

Asuka tried to open the door, but it seemed to be locked from the outside.

“Hello?” Asuka called. She knocked on the door. No answer. The beeps continued.

_How did I wind up here, anyway?_

She ran through the events in her mind. She had gone down to the docks to tell Captain Ahab something, that’s for sure. When she got there, however, someone threw a can at her- a gas canister. After it went off, it didn’t take long for Asuka to fall. The last thing she remembered was someone wearing a long black robe and a gas mask.

_I was… kidnapped? Why?_

This line of thought was interrupted by the TV turning on. Pictured on it was someone wearing a large black cloak and a gas mask, just like the last person Asuka saw before passing out. She slowly walked closer to the TV. The one wearing the mask started to speak with a warped, gravelly voice.

“So then… you all appear to be awake now. Good, it’s about time we get this started. I am sure you all are wondering what you’re all doing here. That, I am afraid, is for me to know… and you to find out.”

_Well, that’s helpful._

“I’m sure that you all have many more questions, and I would be more than happy to oblige. However, I need all nine of you to complete this simple task.”

_A simple task? And what’s this about ‘all nine of us?’ What’s going on? Y’know, I seriously question this person’s competence when they don’t even put a bathroom in here-_

“To put it bluntly, each of you will have to disarm a bomb.”

_Say what?_

“It is up to you, of course, to discover just how to neutralize it. Once you have done that, the door will open and you will be free to leave. Good luck. Oh, and before I go, I should mention- do not try to physically destroy the bomb, nor the doors, walls, and devices you encounter. If you don’t do the puzzle properly, the results may be… catastrophic.”

The TV shut off, once again reflecting the room. Asuka reached up and fiddled with her hair- a bright blue flower adorning the side of her head as per usual.

_They left that, but took away my other stuff? Man… I even had a sudoku book that was almost finished…_

She turned around, looking from the lamps to the picture frame.

_In any case, that was a joke, right? Am I on some TV show right now?_

As she was thinking that, the drawer on the bedside table slid open. Inside was a small box with a blinking red light and a small triangle shaped hole on the top of it. The beeping sound was coming from the box.

“Hrm…” she muttered. This whole thing felt very bizarre. Sure, she had been kidnapped once or twice, but this was pretty new. “Hey wait a minute, where’s Solomon? ...Solomon?”

She pulled out her phone and waited for him to pop out, but he never did.

_Figures._

The beeping continued.

_...Maybe I should do something about that, assuming it actually is a bomb. Besides, maybe it’ll be fun!_

She got to work further exploring the room. She took the chair’s cushion off, but there was nothing. She looked around and behind the tv, but again, nothing. Inside the dresser that the tv was on, however, she found a large bottle of some sort of cleaner. Inside the drawer beneath that was a numerical keypad, and the third drawer was locked. She looked over at the oddly shaped box on top of the bedside table. Upon closer inspection, there were three slots in it, one on the top and one on each side. The one that was on top was shaped like a circle, the one on the left side was an X shape, and the last one looked like a square. The box must have been built into the table since she couldn’t move it at all.

_Alright, I don’t have anything to open that box, let alone stop the bomb… thing._

She looked at that bottle of cleaning solution and began to read.

_“Stain removal at a great price! Removes everything from pesky mustard stains to certain types of paints. Warning: Do not pour directly on certain surfaces, or it may cause serious damage. Will not remove some stains.”_

“Huh… Why would someone even advertise something like this? ‘Buy our stain remover! It doesn’t do anything!’ or something like that, I guess.”

_In any case, that seems to be everything._

She looked at the bizarre painting.

_Although…_

Asuka walked up to the painting and tried to take it down. To her surprise, it actually came off, revealing a set of numbers.

**3 8 1 9**

_Numbers…? Ah!_

She went to the second drawer, found the keypad, and plugged in 3819. A loud noise came from the bottom drawer.

She opened it up, revealing a single small towel.

_Wow, that’s one fluffy towel. But… why would I need a towel if there isn’t even a bathroom?_

She took it and closed the drawer, which shut with a click. It was locked again. Asuka stared at it briefly before turning her attention back to the painting. Something about it seemed off- like it was dirty. She ran her hand along the painting’s surface.

_It’s… crusty? That’s kinda gross._

She looked again at the bottle. It said not to apply it directly, but she had just gotten that towel from the drawer.

Asuka’s face lit up. “Ah, I get it! Too bad there isn’t anyone here right now, heh.”

She poured a small amount of the stuff on the hand towel and touched it to the painting. It worked like a charm, and the bizarre surface of the painting started to fade away. Encouraged, she wiped down the whole surface until there was nothing left of the strange picture. Nothing except another set of numbers, that is.

**2 7 3 1**

The numbers were different this time, and in more ways than one. The 7 was black like the four numbers earlier, but the 2 was green, the 3 was red, and the 1 was blue. Asuka headed over to the drawer with the keypad again and plugged in that set of numbers.

An even louder clunk told that the bottom drawer had once again unlocked. Looking inside, Asuka found three different things. They looked like small screwdrivers, each with a different head. The heads matched the weirdly shaped ones from the box on top of the bedside table. Attached to the square head was a handle of green, attached to the circle was a handle of blue, and attached to the X was a handle of red.

_Sweet! These must plug into that box!_

She walked back over to the bedside table and plugged in all three keys into the slots, waited a bit, and nothing happened. Confused, she took out the keys and plugged them in again. No dice. Frustrated, she looked over the stuff she’d found.

_Those numbers… maybe that’s the order I’m supposed to plug them in?_

Asuka then plugged in blue handled circle key first, the green square key second, and then finally the red handled X. There was a click, and the box opened up, revealing a final key- a yellow handled one with a triangle head.

“This is it!” Asuka grinned as she stuck the triangle head into the bomb box without a moment’s hesitation. After a nervous second in which nothing happened, the beeping fell off and the light stopped blinking. A click from the door told that it had unlocked.

“I’m free!” She laughed as she walked toward the door. As she was about to leave, she noticed something- those three blank papers that were sitting on the table now had writing on them.

_Well, that’s not normal._

Regardless, she didn’t want to stay in this room a moment longer, so she grabbed the papers and left.

The hallway wasn’t very well lit, but further down there was a bright light. When Asuka reached it, her eyes had to adjust for a moment. In front of her was what appeared to be the lobby of some grand hotel. From her vantage point on the top of stairs running along the wall, it was a rather large room with a crystal chandelier hanging from the vaulted ceiling. The floor was a flat beige and mostly bare, but there was a red mat in front of a set of double doors that read “welcome.” There was a stone fountain built into the side of the wall underneath the stairs. It had statues of what appeared to be a bull, a tiger, and a bird transient, each of them flexing and shooting water from their nipples.

_Woah, whoever made that sure has excellent taste. I wonder if I can get that past Shiro? It’d be a nice touch to one of our safe houses._

Opposite from the fountain there was a carpeted sitting room with velvet couches set up around a coffee table. Built into the wall in front of the couches was a fireplace that looked as if it hadn’t used in years. There was a large flat screen TV fixed above the fireplace. Despite the fact that the room looked fit enough for a party, there were very few people- all of whom Asuka recognized.

Sitting by the fountain, there was Melusine in her usual blue maid garb. She was staring into the pool of water, looking rather preoccupied with some thought. Sitting beside her was Alice, also adorned in her outfit as if she had just come straight out of a storybook. She was holding her rabbit and, as always, looked as if she knew things the others did not.

Over by the doors was Tadatomo, trying his best to open them. However, they must have been locked. Judging from the slight smell of smoke, he was clearly getting frustrated. Standing behind him some ways was Shuichi, who Asuka had only met for a fairly brief period of time before the events at the Ikebukuro guild. He was watching Tadatomo struggle while glancing down at his sacred artifact.

Standing in the check-in area was that bizarre DJ, Nyarlathotep. He seemed to be acting like he was actually an employee of this place, though he clearly wasn’t actually doing anything.

Finally, sitting in one of the velvet couches was Captain Ahab. He was puffing away on his pipe, the smoke rising up to the ceiling. He was holding a set of papers much like the ones that Asuka had picked up on the way out the door. From the position Asuka was at on the stairs leading down, she could only see the scar that covered his right eye. It was odd, however, as while he was wearing his usual outfit, his hat was missing.

_Captain! Wait, what’s he doing here? I wonder if he saw me being kidnapped._

As she continued walking down, she heard a voice from behind her.

“A-Asuka! Is that you?”

_Eh?_

The others down there all turned around and saw her, while she turned and saw that it was none other than Shiro walking up to her. He looked like he was on the verge of tears, in all honesty. Relief was evident all across his face.

“Shiro! Do you, ah, know where we are by any chance?” Asuka said, but he just bopped her on the head with a few pieces of paper- evidently the same that Asuka and Ahab had.

“I swear… Did you even bother to read those papers?” He looked at her in disbelief. “Well, nevermind that now. We should discuss it once we’re all here, anyway.”

Asuka looked at him, confused. He sighed.

“Judging by what that person in the gas mask said, there will be a total of nine people. As of right now, there is just me, you, and these six.” He looked over everyone’s heads, but he skipped over Shuichi pretty quickly. “Assuming whoever that was wasn’t lying, and that this ninth person is capable of completing the puzzle, we should have nine total. I propose that we wait until the last one gets here.”

“That sounds as good an idea to me as any!” And with that, Asuka headed down the remaining stairs, Shiro following behind her.

He looked down toward the people situated downstairs and rolled his eyes, muttering, “You’re planning to go hit on that old man again, aren’t you?”

“Maybe so,” she responded, grinning slyly.

“I get you have a thing for him but there are definitely more… pressing concerns at the moment- what on Earth is that fountain?”

Asuka laughed. “It’s great, isn’t it? I’d love to have one of them for one of our safe houses-”

“Not a chance. In any case, could you try to be a little more serious at the moment? There’ll be time for that stuff later.”

They walked down the rest of stairs and she settled down in one of the seats near Ahab. He glanced at her, his eyebrows raising curiously. Then, he looked back down at the paper he was reading. Asuka said nothing, as Shiro was glaring at her, his papers rolled up as if to imitate a blunt weapon.

_He’s waiting for it._

For the next few minutes, not a whole lot happened. Asuka glanced at the others every now and then. She was burning with curiosity about why they were all gathered here- it’s not like they seemed to have much in common. She walked over to the doors, where Tadatomo was pacing.

“Any luck?”

Tadatomo stopped and turned to her. “No. Sorry, my liege. I did all I could to open the doors, but they didn’t budge.” He glared at the doors.

Asuka frowned and tried to open them herself. Even with all of her force, they wouldn’t budge.

_Strong doors._

She shrugged at Tadatomo, who shrugged back. Asuka headed back over to the velvet seats, though not before she caught a glimpse of Shuichi smirking while looking over at them.

_What’s his deal?_

She ignored him and sat back down. Every so often, she’d look toward the top of the stairs, hoping this ninth person would show up soon. Ahab put down the papers, sighed, and continued to puff on his pipe. Shiro had his eyes glued to his papers, which were now unraveled. Asuka considered that maybe she should read them too, but then again… that was a lot of work. Shiro could summarize it, probably.

“Oh? Who’s all this now?”

Standing at the top of the stairs was Ose, a leopard transient that Asuka had only met once before. He scanned the eight of them, his eyes stopping momentarily on Asuka and then on Alice.

“Interesting.” He then walked down the stairs and pulled some folded papers out of his pocket. “I would have come sooner, but I am afraid I was preoccupied. I suppose you all were waiting for me, then?”

Shiro spoke up. “Indeed. Now that all nine of us are here, we can discuss-”

**Ding!**

Shiro stopped. The TV had just turned on, and on it was the same masked figure that showed up in the rooms.

_It’s them-!_

“So you all completed the first task. Well done. I expected nothing less of you. As a reward, I will give you a small tidbit of information. My name- well, what you can refer to me in any case, is Zero. It was I who took you here and wrote the note that you should now hold in your possession.”

_Zero. Why does that name feel so familiar? It almost feels like deja vu._

“In order for you all to leave here in one piece, you will have to complete my puzzles. Ahead of you lies three paths. As of this point forwards, you all must split up. Do not worry, as they will end up at the same place in the end. I do advise you to… be careful about who you may ally yourself with for now. I wish you all the best of luck, and may we meet again at the final stage.”

With that, the TV flipped off and parts of the wall beside them slid open so that three doors were revealed. Each door had a bright red number on it- **5** , **6** , and **7** respectively.

No one moved, just looked at the doors. It was Shuichi who broke the silence.

“So, I know Shiro and Asuka here, but as for the others, I don’t believe we’ve met in person. Mind if we all introduce ourselves? At the same time, I believe we should share how exactly we wound up here.”

“Yes, I agree,” Alice said softly. “Since you are the one who brought it up, I believe you should start us off.”

“Ha! Fair enough. My name is Shuichi. The only thing I remember is being put to sleep by some smoke. The last thing I saw was that gas mask out of the corner of my eye. You?”

“My name is Alice. The same thing happened to me while Jambavan was out running errands.” She said this, then looked at Ose. “I question the motives of someone who would put us two here, as well.”

Ose looked at everyone, then introduced himself. “I am Ose, and I was kidnapped in much the same way, though I was slightly busy with a task I was working on at the time. Perhaps I got led into a trap.”

Tadatomo went next. “I’m Tadatomo. I don’t suppose our kidnapping stories are going to differ, based on everyone so far. I must admit, it feels surprising to meet my liege again like this.” He said this while looking sheepishly toward Asuka.

“I don’t think I really have to introduce myself since I know you all in the first place, but I’ll go ahead and do it anyway!” She rolled her papers up like a microphone and spoke as if she were on TV. “I’m Asuka, I enjoy not being kidnapped and taking long walks on the beach. I’m single and ready to mingle- ow!” Shiro had smacked her in the back of the head with his papers again.

Shiro sighed again. “I’m Shiro, the head of strategy at the guild Asuka leads. Please ignore her.”

Nyarl decided it was his turn. “Oh yeah, I’m loving this connection! Always the not-so-straight man! I’m Nyarlathotep, and I make the most hypnotic funky fresh-”

“I’m Melusine, a servant of Monsieur Licht,” Melusine spoke up, ignoring Nyarl’s rambling. “Truth be told, I’m almost glad that he isn’t here, though I’m sure he could make sense of this.”

Ahab blew out smoke and spoke up. “Good grief, ye all are far too cheerful for somethin’ like this. I’m Ahab, but ye landlubbers can call me Captain. I was kidnapped off me boat in the same way ye all were. Seems me hat was lost along the way, though.”

“Aw, that’s terrible, Captain! It looked so good on you.” Asuka thought for a second, then said, “I’d love to spend more quality time with you after all this- to help you find it, of course.”

“Asuka!” Shiro smacked her on the back of the head with his papers again, while Nyarl cackled.

Ahab rolled his eye. “Ye haven’t changed a bit, lass. Not even with all this goin’ on.”

“Well, in any case, I suppose it’s time to discuss,” Shiro said, fiddling with something on his wrist. “I assume you all got the papers?”

Most of them nodded, but Tadatomo looked confused. Nyarl didn’t seem to have the papers, but he might know more than he lets on. It’s a bit hard to tell what Nyarl is thinking.

“Where did we get those?” Tadatomo asked.

“They were on the table by the door of the rooms we woke up in,” Shiro answered.

“I don’t remember seeing anything like that.”

Nyarl spoke up, “Oh baby, don’t just give us a tease~ Show us everything you’re packing!”

Shiro blushed and held his papers out for them to see. As Asuka thought, they looked like they were the same as the ones she had picked up in the room, although she still hadn’t looked at them very closely.

Shiro turned and glared at Asuka, exasperated. “Seeing as how I doubt you’ve actually read it despite the situation, I think it’s for the best if you read it out loud.”

Asuka turned to her papers, cleared her throat, and read aloud-

“Welcome to the Nonary game. In this game, you will all be working to reach the end of this series of ‘puzzles.’ Attached to either your right or left arm is a ‘bracelet’ sacred artifact-”

Asuka looked at her wrist, and sure enough, there was a bracelet. It was light gray and had a black square with a white number in the middle- 5- and a smaller number underneath it- 20. It appeared as if it were made out of highly polished stone, though it was very light. It’s kind of incredible that she hadn’t noticed it before, honestly. Shiro cleared his throat and Asuka was brought back to attention.

“-that has two numbers on it. The bigger of the two numbers could be considered your ‘Stamina.’ In order to progress through this game, you will need to pass through numbered doors. This is where your ‘stamina’ will matter. In order to pass through a door, you will need at least two bracelets, but no more than three may pass through at a given time.”

_Well now, I sure hope a certain someone’s stamina holds up-_

Shiro scoffed. “Whatever you’re thinking, knock it off.” Asuka looked at him with a sheepish grin and continued.

“The ‘stamina’ on the two or three bracelets will add up to a number. The ‘digital root’ of those three numbers will be the door that they can pass through- no more, and no less. After each round, your bracelets will change their number. Two or more bracelets can have the same number. Be forewarned, however. Should you choose to go through a door that has a number different than that which you are fit for, the results will be… catastrophic. This ‘Sacred Artifact’ will cause your own sacred artifact to be overloaded and run out of control- something that will undoubtedly result in your death. Don’t bother trying to remove the bracelets either, as if they get damaged in such a way, they will cause the same reaction. The smaller of the two numbers is merely the number of minutes you have left to start the next phase. Should you run out of time, the same penalty will be applied to all who have not entered the next phase at that instant. I eagerly await the gripping conclusion to this game. Try not to keep me waiting…

-Zero”

They sat there in silence. Some, who had already read this, merely looked at each other, and down at their bracelets. Others, such as Asuka and Tadatomo, could hardly believe it. It was so much to take in.

“H-Hold on, there’s no way this is serious, right? A bomb? Kidnapping? This… thing?” She gestured to the bracelet on her arm. “I mean… what’s the point of all this? Why would they kidnap all of us…” Asuka trailed off.

_And why do I know everyone here?_

“Well...” Ose spoke up, looking through Asuka. “I am fairly certain that whoever is behind this does, in fact, mean what they say. The real reason that I took so long making my way down here was that very reason. I read the papers back inside my room and thought that it seemed a bit over the top. So, I figured the best way to check would be to inspect the bomb.”

“Wait,” Asuka interrupted him, “didn’t this Zero guy say not to damage the bomb? Wasn’t that extremely reckless?”

“As if you’re one to talk, guild master. I’m half surprised you didn’t blow up the bomb yourself,” Shiro said, giving her a side-eye. “She does have a point though, how would you inspect the bomb with that in mind?”

Ose grinned. “Well, I did make sure to be careful. I had already deactivated the bomb, so I figured it would be safe. Besides, I don’t think this Zero fellow would kill me over this.”

“Aye, I get it.” Ahab blew out smoke again. “If ye could tell that the bomb was real, they’d become that much easier to believe.”

Ose winked. “Right on the money, Captain. And let me tell you, I did find my way into the bomb. It’s real alright.”

“W-what…?” Shiro’s face went pale.

“Yep, and that’s not all.” Ose looked toward the doors, and his expression hardened. “The power of the explosives inside that box… it wouldn’t have just blown up the room. Seeing as how the explosion would likely trigger all the other bombs, it’s entirely possible… no. It’s likely that this entire building would have been wiped out… and we would have gone with it.”

They all stared at Ose, unsure of what to say.

“Then…” Alice spoke up, her expression rigid. “This ‘Zero’… they do not care about any of our individual lives. It seems that should one person mess up, everyone will take the fall. Indeed, I find it unlikely that any of us would be able to complete this should we be put out of commission.” With that said, they once more fell into silence trying to process what’s going on.

“So, er, what exactly are these ‘digital root’ things?” Tadatomo looked uncomfortable. Asuka couldn’t help but agree with him.

“Ah, I believe I could answer that one!” Shuichi said, now perked up. “I admit, I’m not a fan of this… game. But I have no plans of dying today, and that means I won’t allow any of you to die either. I’ve got to get back to my little brother, so listen up. Say that I had the number 2, one of you had the number 7, and the third person had the number 8. If you add them all up, you get 17, right? The next step is to add all the digits together. So in this case, you’d add 1 + 7 and you’d wind up with 8. So, the digital root of 2 + 7 + 8 = 8! Put bluntly, the ‘Digital root’ is the sum of the parts of the sum, make sense?”

_Not really._

“If not, well, you’ll learn as you go. The doors over there have 5, 6, and 7 on them. Seeing as how we don’t have a lot of time...” Shuichi looked down at his bracelet. There were just 10 minutes left until the deadline. “...Let’s all share our numbers, shall we?”

With that, he compiled a list of everyone’s numbers.

“Alright, with the numbers we have available, how about we go with this:”

He wrote it down on a sheet of paper.

**Melusine (1), Ose (6), and Nyarlathotep (7) take door number 5. 1 + 6 + 7 = 14 | 1 + 4 = 5**

**Alice (4), Ahab (9), and Tadatomo (2) take door number 6. 2 + 4 + 9 = 15 | 1 + 5 = 6**

**Shuichi (3), Shiro (8), and Asuka (5) take door number 7. 3 + 5 + 8 = 16 | 1 + 6 = 7**

“Everyone good with this? There are other options, of course, but it’d take far too long to consider them. If no one objects… I think we should get going.”

Everyone gathered by their respective doors, which opened automatically when they got near.

“I don’t see anything that looks like a scanner for these bracelets,” Melusine said. “Perhaps they will just… know?”

“I-I suppose that’s our best shot for right now,” Shiro said. He was clearly nervous.

Asuka smiled at them. “Don’t worry! I’m sure we’ll show this ‘Zero’ what’s what. Let's go!”

With that, they all walked through their assigned doors, which shut close behind them. The wall then slid over them, and it appeared as if everything was as it once was.

 


	2. Questions without Answer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seek a way out of the pool room, featuring Shiro and Shuichi!

Beyond the door was a hallway with a red carpet leading down to the end, which appeared to bear another door just like the one they had entered. As much as this hallway looked like one you’d find in a hotel, what with the beige wallpaper and lights fixed to the wall, there weren’t any rooms. After a little while, the door closed behind the three of them. They slowed down and looked at their bracelets. The number that showed the amount of time remaining was absent. Asuka breathed a sigh of relief and looked toward the other two.

“I guess that means we’re off the time limit now, right?” She asked, hoping they’d confirm her suspicions.

“I don’t want to say anything for sure… but that’s what I’m thinking too.” Shiro grimaced while continuing to look at his wrist. “I wish we knew everything, but Zero didn’t exactly give us a whole lot to go on.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that one.” Shuichi stopped and folded his arms. He had a glint in his eye as if he had stumbled across some treasure.

“What do you mean?” Shiro asked quickly. He suddenly looked more focused.

“Why this ‘Zero’ has us here, I can’t say. The point of these bracelets, why we were kidnapped like that, what the end goal of this ‘Nonary Game’ is, I can’t fathom. Not until we have more information, anyway. The important thing at the moment is that we have the questions, even though we’re left without the answers. With the questions in mind, we can start making guesses.” Shuichi said, grinning.

“You mean like, ‘Who is Zero?’” Asuka asked.

“Or ‘Why the time limit?’” Shiro said, nodding.

“Exactly. And of course, ‘Why does everyone here know Asuka?’” Shuichi turned around and continued walking down the hall, gesturing for them to keep up. “The fact that you know everyone here is a starting point, I think. Maybe it’s a coincidence, or maybe it’s a part of some greater scheme.”

Shiro glared at him and said, “That makes it sound like you think Asuka is affiliated with Zero.”

Shuichi looked back over his shoulder. “I would like to say that I’m not even considering it, but that would be a lie. I don’t know you very well... so for all I know, you could be Zero yourself. You have to consider every option, right?”

“Now hold on, Asuka would never-” Shiro was interrupted when Asuka put her hand on his shoulder.

“Shiro, relax. It’s fine, and it makes sense. I’ve been wondering why I know you all myself, actually. At the moment there’s no point for making such wild guesses though, I don’t think. I’m not dealing with Zero, trust me. I wouldn’t ever do something like this to my friends.”

“Hah! I’ll hold you to that.”

Finally, they reached the end of the hallway. The door ahead of them opened up as they got close, and they filed into the room beyond. As soon as they were all over the threshold, the door shut closed.

The first thing Asuka noticed when she walked into the room was that it was incredibly humid, there was a vague smell of chlorine, and there was a low humming noise. The room they were now apparently locked in appeared to be an indoor pool. The walls were surrounded on all sides by bricks, and there didn’t seem to be any windows whatsoever. There was what could have been a skylight over the pool, but it was boarded off. There were 5 long plastic pool chairs, with three beside the pool and two stacked on top of each other next to what appeared to be a closet for pool equipment. The pool itself was rectangular, with signs that said 3 ft deep at one end, and 5 ft deep at the far end. While the water was clear to the point where it was easy to make out the bottom of the pool, it was devoid of anything else- be it pool toys or debris.

“That’s weird,” Shuichi muttered. He knelt down closer to the water and dipped his hand in.

“Hey, wait!” Shiro yelled, hurrying toward him. “You don’t know what that is! For all you know, it could be some sort of poison or it’s charged or something! You can’t just stick your hand in it!”

“Relax, Shiro. I’m fine. Besides, I already had a feeling of what it is.” He stood back up and shook the water off his hand. “This water… it’s pure.”

Asuka leaned down and touched the water herself. “Huh? What do you mean ‘pure?’ Isn’t pool water supposed to have chlorine?”

“Yes, it’s supposed to have chlorine in it to get rid of all sorts of germs. As an example, _E. coli_ and _V. cholerae,_ which can cause dysentery and cholera respectively, both get killed by the chlorine. Well, provided that it’s at the proper amount. Too little chlorine and the pathogen lives. Too much, and we might end up doing their work for them.”

Asuka stared at the water. “It looks so clear.”

“Well, there’s the other thing. Not only is it pure of chlorine, it also seems to be pure of, well, everything else.” He elaborated, seeing Asuka’s confused expression. “Well, normally water is going to have all sorts of minerals and other chemicals found in it. Water that you drink isn’t going to be the same everywhere. That’s really where this water is odd. This entire swimming pool seems to have been filled with entirely uncontaminated water.”

Shiro scratched his chin, then admitted, “So in that case, you wouldn’t have had to worry about any sort of electrical charge. Pure water makes for quite a poor conductor, after all.”

_A poor conductor, huh?_

Inspecting the rest of the area, Asuka checked the steps leading down into the pool. There was a metal bar that appeared to be a handrail leading down into the water. On the side of it was a set of indents. One was a circle, one was a rectangle, and the last was a star. Above these was a switch. Flipping the switch did absolutely nothing, at least not as far as she could tell. Not wanting to disrupt anything, Asuka flipped it back to its original position.

The only place left to inspect was the area by the closet. The two pool chairs that were stacked were sitting far more unbalanced than they should have been. Upon closer inspection, there was a star-shaped piece of metal underneath one of the legs.

“A star…?” Asuka flipped it over, examining it.

Shiro sighed. “It’s just like the handrail leading into the pool. I’m assuming we’ll have to get all three of the pieces to finish that puzzle. Just hold onto it until we have them all.”

“If you say so.”

Inside the closet was a few shelves littered with all sorts of equipment. On one there were pool sanitation chemicals and nets used to pick stuff out of the water. On another was a pile of stuff that could be used to play games with in the pool, like a few beach balls. The last shelf was bare. Asuka picked up two of the balls.

“Hey, Shiro-”

“Put them down, Asuka.”

“You have a problem with me playing with two large balls?”

“Asuka, you make the exact same joke every time you run into two remotely spherical objects. At least find some new material to work with.”

“Aw, come on. It’s not _every_ time. Don’t be such a spoilsport, Shiro. You can play with them too if you want!”

“Have I mentioned before that I wonder why we put you in charge sometimes?”

“Once or twice.”

Shiro shook his head and went to go talk to Shuichi, who was inspecting the metal rail, leaving Asuka grinning to herself. The last thing in the room was a small gray box on the wall with wires running from it into the ceiling. Opening it, Asuka could see that it wasn’t any old circuit breaker. On it was few switches with small lights next to them, although most of them seemed to be off. From top to bottom they read “Drain,” “Faucet,” “Filter,” and “Plug.” The light next to filter was the only one that was on. Feeling curious, Asuka flipped the switch next to the one labeled ‘filter.’ The humming noise stopped. She flipped it back on and, after a second, it started back up again.

“Asuka, what did you do?” Shiro appeared behind her. He and Shuichi must have walked into the closet when the humming stopped.

“Er, why do you assume I did something?” Asuka stuck her tongue out at him. He just looked at her, unamused. “Ok fine, I pressed one of these switches. The one that says ‘filter,’ see? And don’t get onto me about pressing things even though I don’t know what they do, if I did that then we’d never get out of here.”

“Well said,” Shuichi nodded, then sidled over to the box. He smirked when he saw the labels. He read over the switches one more time, then flipped the switch that said “drain.” As soon as he flipped that switch, they heard a loud thunking noise from over in the other room. The three of them rushed to the pool once more.

“The water!” Asuka gasped. “It’s gone!”

“Just as I thought, not that it was a very hard deduction,” Shuichi said. Looking back down at the pool, he stopped. “Huh? Hey Shiro, could you go check down in the pool? I think I see something.”

“Why don’t you just do it?” Shiro grumbled, but he headed down into the pool anyway. Shiro stopped at the side of the pool close to where the two of them were standing, knelt down making careful measure not to get his clothes wet, and picked up something. He then handed it to them.

“It’s a metal disk… Ah!” Asuka ran over to the handrail and compared the indents. Just as she thought, the circle lined up perfectly with the circular indent in the metal. “I think all we need now is the rectangular piece.”

_But then what?_

“What’s this?” Shiro said. Asuka went back to standing next to Shuichi and saw that Shiro was pointing to a light gray slab of metal in the ground in the 5 feet section.

“Hold that thought. You might want to step back from it, though.” Shuichi then walked over to the closet. A few seconds later, and there was a whirring noise as if a motor were running. Shuichi walked back from the closet. “Did it work?”

“Did what-” Asuka started, but she looked back down at Shiro and saw that the gray slab was rising up. Asuka went down into the pool with Shiro, being careful not to slip on the wet ground. Now that she was up close, she could see that the slab had some sort of metal surrounding it. The structure slowed down and eventually stopped. It was about two feet tall and was slightly angled toward the opposite side of the pool. They waited for it to do something, but nothing happened.

“Well, that sure was… something.” Asuka said. Shiro and she walked back up to where Shuichi was.

“Yeah, I agree. It definitely… happened.” Shiro stared at the empty pool. “I wonder what it does.”

“Well, there’s a couple more things we haven’t tried. The ‘Faucet’ switch, for instance. I’m assuming that’ll replace the water.” Shuichi said, gesturing toward the pool.

“I’ll go flip that, then.” Asuka walked into the closet. Shuichi must have picked the ‘plug’ switch since there was a light glowing next to it now.

_A plug, huh?_

Asuka put her finger on the ‘faucet’ switch, yelled to them, “Stand clear!” then flipped the switch. Running back to the pool room, she saw that what she had initially assumed to be a skylight had actually opened up. Coming from it was a massive amount of water, pouring directly into the pool. The roar of it was deafening. The cascade of water stopped right as the water level reached the amount it had usually been. The water was much cloudier than it had been, but it was soon back to the state it had been in when they first walked in.

“I see…” Shuichi had put his hand in the water as it was filling up, and was just now shaking it off.

“That water wasn’t pure, was it,” Shiro said, nodding.

“Exactly. I believe that the water that came down from there,” he gestured at the roof, “was actually salt water.”

“But… why would it be salt water?” Asuka asked, dipping her hand down into the pure water again. “What kind of pool even is this?”

Shuichi got up and looked into the pool. “Well, it’s not salt water anymore. Whatever filter they have must have turned the water pure. That means that, among other things, if we turned that filter off and filled it with salt water, it would now be conductive. Such an odd system for a pool, though.” He then focused on something inside the pool. “Hey, Shiro. Go and flip that drain switch again, will you? Oh and, while you’re at it, you might as well flip the filter switch as well.”

Shiro disappeared into the closet, and a moment later the water drained out of the pool through a hole in the floor that opened up. Another moment later, the humming in the background ceased as well. Asuka then noticed what had gotten Shuichi’s attention. There was a small piece of metal now sitting on the pool bed. Asuka walked down and picked it up. Examining it, it was a small rectangular sheet of metal, just like the circle and star she had found earlier. She now had the star, circle, and rectangle pieces, and she was sure that they’d all fit into place on the handrail. She headed back up to where Shuichi and showed him her finding.

“I think we’re almost done now.” Shuichi walked over to one of the pool chairs and sat down. “Hey, Shiro! Flip that faucet switch again, alright?”

Asuka heard a small click from the closet, and then the ceiling door opened up again, dumping salt water into the pool. The pool filled up once again, and the water shut off. As Shuichi thought, this time the water remained cloudy. Shiro stepped out into the entryway of the closet and watched.

“Perfect. Asuka, I suppose I don’t need to tell you what to do next?”

“Nope.” She gripped the three metal shapes in her hand. She walked over to the handrail and plugged them in, each locking into place with a satisfying click. The switch that hadn’t worked before was now lit with an orange glow.

“Just a word of advice,” Shuichi got on his feet. “I would avoid touching that metal or the pool once you press the switch.”

Heeding his warning, Asuka pressed the switch and stepped back. Almost immediately, the water started rippling. A loud humming noise started emanating from the pool, with bubbles coming up all around the metal slab. There was a loud sliding sound from the closet.

“Hey, you two! A door just appeared in here! I nearly missed it, but you remember that empty shelf? It fell down into the floor and the wall slid open, revealing a passageway. We can get out of here now!” Shiro was smiling, relief evident on his face. Shuichi and Asuka looked toward each other and headed toward Shiro.

Asuka grinned and looked back at the pool. “So that was some sort of electrical current, then? Funny how all that stuff about conductivity came up earlier.”

Shuichi nodded. “Eh, I had a hunch. I’m not really sure why else they’d put a switch on that handrail, and my suspicions were all but confirmed when I saw that that device at the bottom of the pool was called a plug.” Despite him being right, he had a frown on his face. He looked like he had something concerning on his mind.

“Shuichi? Are you alright? I mean, aside from being in this game, anyway.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah I’m fine. There’s something that’s been bothering me. I’ve been meaning to bring it up, actually.”

They reached the closet and, sure enough, there was a sliding door much like the one they had used to enter the pool room in the first place.

“Took you both long enough. Let’s get going!” Shiro said this and turned toward the door. Before he could move, however, Shuichi stopped him.

“Hold your horses, Shiro. Before we move on, I’d like to bring up something. Truth be told, I did come up with all sorts of other options for how we split up. I wanted to discuss this with you personally though, and I felt you’d be the most comfortable if Asuka went with us as well.”

Shiro glanced nervously at Asuka, who shrugged.

“You’re familiar with how my sacred artifact works, correct?”

Shiro pushed his glasses up. “I believe I do. It records everything that you observe, does it not?”

“Close enough. Or… it would be.”

Asuka thought for a moment. “Is there something wrong with it? I saw you using it earlier while Tadatomo was trying to open those doors.”

“Well, that’s around when I noticed the problem. I can access my sacred artifact as normal, and it works just as how it used to- but there’s one problem. Anything I ‘observe’ in relation to my views up to a certain point in the past… refuse to be added to the tablet.”

Shiro’s eyes widened. “Hold on, you mean it’s ‘refusing information’? Can that happen?”

Shuichi sighed and pulled out his tablet, the aforementioned sacred artifact. Ethereal screens popped up all around him showing information on the past. He waved his hand and the screens changed rapidly until they finally stopped. “This is as far as it goes. Normally it’d just stop at the present day, but this is… much earlier. I don’t quite understand why, though.”

Asuka looked closer at the screens, reading the date.

_But that's... the day before I woke up?_

Shiro looked lost in thought. “I admit, even after all this time I still don’t know everything about sacred artifacts. Is it actually possible for something of that nature to just… deny information like that?”

Frowning, Shuichi kept fiddling with his tablet. “I don’t… believe so. At the very least, there’s no precedent for this. What worries me isn’t so much that... it’s the only other possibility I can think that does.”

“What’s that?” Asuka asked.

“Logically, if something hadn’t occurred yet, it would be a lie to assume it exists or happened. It might sound like a stretch, but if we were back in time it would explain why I don’t have ‘future’ events in my tablet.”

Asuka laughed. “No way! Time travel? That’s just… that wouldn’t make any sense.”

“Does any of this make any sense?”

“Point taken.”

Shiro’s brow was furrowed as he spoke up again. “I don’t deny that it seems like a stretch. But… even if time travel is possible, wouldn’t there be a whole lot of problems with it? The future could change drastically just because of a… a snail or… something, couldn’t it?”

Shuichi laughed. “Shiro, relax. Again, I’m not sure. Maybe all it is is just, say, some effect that this bracelet has on me. Who knows how these things affect us.” He held up his arm. He then swiped his hand again and all the displays vanished. “I just thought I’d talk to you about this so you could mull it over some. Who knows, maybe we’ll find some new information later? As I said earlier, it’s important to have the questions before you get the answers.”

Shuichi turned and left through the door without another word. Shiro and Asuka looked at each other, both of them reflecting the other’s unease in their eyes. They then followed after Shuichi, and the door shut behind them.

This hallway was very different from the one they went into to reach the swimming room. Where that one looked like a hotel corridor, this one appeared to be more futuristic. The walls were covered in white panels, and the floor was a hard dark gray surface. It was well lit by fluorescent lights in the ceiling, showing the single door that waited for them at the end. The walk through the hallway was tense, their footsteps echoing in the empty hall. They reached the end without a word and walked through the door.

The room they walked into, thankfully, did not smell of chlorine. Instead, it looked more like a conference room. There was a long table in the middle with nine chairs around it, all of them different sizes with different numbers labeled on them. The table was empty except for a small white cup that held half a dozen pens. At the front of the table was a white projection screen, although there wasn’t anything on it at the moment. There were three doors on the wall opposite the screen, one of which being the door they just entered through. There were already three people in the room, sitting at the chairs with 2, 5, and 6. Sitting in the number 2 chair was Alice, holding her rabbit. In the number five chair was Captain Ahab, puffing on his pipe as always. From the way he was sitting, it wasn’t possible to see if he had seen them enter yet. Tadatomo was in the sixth chair, fidgeting. He stood up as soon as he saw them enter.

“Y-you’re ok! Er, you are ok, right? You’re not hurt or… anything like that, right?”

Asuka laughed and patted Tadatomo’s shoulder. “Yes, I’m fine, don’t worry. Are you alright? Did something happen?”

“Good grief, do ye wee brats have ta be so loud? No one’s hurt.” Ahab breathed out smoke, turning to look at them.

_Well, I guess now he noticed._

Alice gripped her rabbit and spoke up. Her voice seemed a little softer than it had been back in the lobby. “It sure is something for him to say that... seeing as the only one who could have gotten hurt was the captain here.”

“I told ye already, it ain't nothin’ ta worry about,” Ahab grunted and kept puffing on his pipe.

Shiro grimaced and said, “I guess these puzzles can be quite dangerous. If we had slipped or touched the wrong thing, we could have gotten electrocuted.”

Tada was shocked. “Where were you, a generator room or something?”

“A pool, actually!” Asuka said, smiling. “It wasn’t that dangerous, we just had to be careful! There weren’t any swimsuits though.”

“I’m surprised she’s not dead myself,” said Shuichi jovially. Shiro sighed and nodded.

“Wow, I see how it is. Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

Alice looked over them and held out her bracelet. On it was the number 2. “I suggest you take your seats, I believe it is more than likely that our captor has some words for us.”

Looking down at their bracelets, Asuka had the number 4, Shuichi had the number 1, and Shiro was the number 7. They headed over to their respective chairs, Asuka taking her place beside Ahab.

“Are ye really alright, lass?” Ahab muttered to Asuka, his eye fixed on her.

“Oh yeah, I think so. I feel a bit dazed still, what with everything that’s been going on, but I’m sure things will work out. They always do.” Asuka replied with a soft smile on her face.

“At least ye have a positive attitude. Just focus and don’t be reckless.” Ahab looked down at his hands. “I wouldn’t want ta lose me wee, sea-farin’ friend.” Ahab closed his eye and once again continued to puff on his pipe.

Asuka smiled and rolled her eyes.

_I could say the same about you, Captain._

She looked down at her bracelet. The spot on the display that was supposed to say how much time was left until they had to continue on wasn’t blank anymore. For now, it just had two dashes.

_What does that mean? The timer hasn’t started yet, maybe?_

Her thoughts were interrupted with the second door opening up. Out walked Ose, followed by Melusine and Nyarlathotep. Shiro gestured them over.

Ose gave the table set up a once-over, then looked down at his bracelet. “Ah, I see. I suppose this is my seat then.” He sat down next to Asuka in the seat labeled 3. Melusine sat down in the 9th seat, and Nyarlathotep took his place in the 8th seat. The bracelet still didn’t have any number for the time left. Asuka opened her mouth to ask them how their room went, but then the lights dimmed. A motor hummed from somewhere above them.

_Where’s that noise coming from?_

She looked up, and over toward the back of the room, there was a projector descending. After a short while, it stopped and flickered to life. Shown on the screen was, once again, a hooded figure wearing a gas mask. Zero.

“Well done on completing your first puzzle.” Zero’s voice was just as warbled as it had been back at the lobby and in the hotel room. “I expected nothing less from you. If all nine of you are currently watching this, it means everything is going according to plan.”

“What plan!?” Tadatomo had gotten up and was glaring at the projection. “Why did you take us here?! What’s wrong with you!? Why… Why aren’t you saying anything?” A bead of sweat ran down his face and he slowly sat back down. Zero had stopped talking from the very first words Tadatomo had said.

Zero’s head bowed slightly. “I am sorry that I can’t tell you everything, not yet. I promise that you will learn the truth behind this eventually, just so long as you keep going.”

With a sliding sound, three more doors opened up on the wall behind Asuka. On each of them was a black number, much like the ones they had initially walked through. The first door had a **1,** the second bore the number **3,** and the last number was another **5**.

“Good luck. I hope we meet again soon.”

With that, the projector turned off and rose back into the ceiling, the lights returning to their previous brightness. Shuichi stood up and placed his left hand on the table, holding out the wrist that held his bracelet. Asuka squinted, trying to make out what he was doing. With a start, she looked down at her own bracelet. There was now a time remaining until they had to go once again.

Shuichi put his hand down onto the table with his other. “As you can see, there’s thirty minutes until we have to move on. I’m sure we all want to discuss things about the puzzles or what we just saw, but for now, let’s determine how we’re going to move on. As it stands right now with our numbers all being different, and with those door numbers, we have no less than 21 different options to choose from. We could sit here all day and discuss the merits of all of them, but I think it’d be far more efficient if I picked out a few. Let’s see…” He reached out and grabbed a pen from the cup, and pulled out the papers they had gotten back where they began. He began to write.

  * **One: 1 3 6  Three: 5 7 9  Five: 2 4 8**


  * **One: 2 3 5  Three: 6 7 8  Five: 1 4 9**


  * **One: 3 7 9  Three: 2 4 6  Five: 1 5 8**



After writing this, he held it out to the rest of them.

_Aw, none of these let me go with Ahab._

“I guess I’m going with door one no matter which option we take,” Ose said, twirling his crown around his finger. “Not that that’s really a problem, I suppose.”

“I think it would be for the best if Ose and myself didn’t pair up,” said Alice, glancing down at the paper.

“Why not?” Melusine said, scrutinizing Alice. “Do you know each other?” Alice said nothing, averting her gaze.

Ose chuckled. “I believe what Miss Alice is worried about is how conflicting our two sacred artifacts are. Were we to use our rules on or even around each other, it could easily result in an exception.”

Shuichi nodded. “Well then, I can certainly see why you would want to avoid that. Better not to risk it. I’ll cross option B off the list then.”

Alice’s face got a little less tense. “Thank you.”

Nyarlathotep cackled. “Maybe a little DJ-on-captain action wouldn’t go far then~”

This caused Ahab to cough out smoke. Asuka patted him on his back, then asked, “Er… What do you mean by that? In as much detail as possible, if you could-”

Ahab glared at her. “Ye could stand ta sound a wee bit less interested, brat.”

Nyarl smirked and held up his box. It shone with a green light, and another Nyarl popped into existence beside him. Alice and Ose looked unsurprised, and Shiro even rolled his eyes. The others gasped. The two Nyarls made absurd poses that, realistically, shouldn’t even be possible.

“Are you satisfied~?” They drawled out in unison.

Melusine leaned forward on the table. “He’s identical… the clone even has the same bracelet.” She stood up and looked closer at the new Nyarl, then covered her mouth in shock. “The clone’s bracelet doesn’t have anything on it…?”

“Hey, watch who you’re calling a clone!” The second Nyarl cackled while pointing his thumb at himself. They then posed together like some sort of boy band and said in tandem, “We’re the real deal, sweaty!”

Tadatomo was dumbfounded. “S-sweaty? What is the meaning of this?”

Alice sighed and clutched her stuffed rabbit. “What he means is that the clones that he can make due to his sacred artifact are not... ‘not’ Nyarlathotep. In essence, they are all him. Captain Ahab, correct me if I am wrong but... does your rule of 'deprivation' apply to that harpoon you have been lugging around?”

Ahab hefted the harpoon onto the table. “Aye, that it does.”

Both the Nyarls called out, “Oh Captain, are all your harpoons that big~?” Everyone ignored him.

“If that is the case, then should you impale anyone on that harpoon, they would be cut off from the effects of their rule. That is where a problem would arise with the game’s logic. The way he uses it, Nyarlathotep sort of embodies his sacred artifact. It stands to reason that by denying him that, you deny his very existence. This might not be a problem if there were only one Nyarlathotep, but if he has one or more 'clones' and you sever the connection of the rule… each of their existences would become a paradox, and thus an exception could be created.”

Ahab’s eye shifted down toward his harpoon. He carefully took it and placed it on the floor next to him. “Well, I guess it’d be fer the best fer us ta not be a part o’ the same crew.”

The original Nyarl snapped and the second Nyarl popped out of existence. “Glad you picked up what I put down, your majesty.” He laughed and sat himself down once again, putting his feet up on the table.

Ahab opened his mouth, then shut it. Rubbing his temples, he muttered, “I need a drink…”

“Ok then, I suppose that only leaves us with the one option.” He had sat down with all the commotion involving Nyarl, but he stood back up again. “I will go through door 1 alongside Ose and Tadatomo. Shiro, you’ll take the captain and Melusine with you through door 3. Asuka, Alice, and Nyarlathotep will take door 5. Are there any objections with that?”

They all looked at each other and collectively shook their heads.

Shiro stood up and pointed at his bracelet. There were just 5 minutes left. “Let’s all get going, we’re getting far too close to the time limit for comfort.”

They all stood up, Ahab being sure to handle his harpoon carefully. They all gathered by their respective doors, which slid open just like before. After one final glance at each other, they walked forward through the doors, onwards toward their next challenge. All the while, Asuka had something on her mind.

_Zero said ‘everything is going according to plan.’ Is playing this game like Zero wants really the best move? But then again, what alternative do we have…_

The doors slid shut behind them, and the walls once again covered them up.

 


	3. Foreboding Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alice, Nyarlathotep, and Asuka escape from the nursery, and discover something new.

When the door closed, Asuka was snapped back to reality. This hallway was just like the one they had used to enter the conference room, complete with lighting, hard flooring, and a sliding door at the end. Asuka slowed down and looked back at the door they had come through, but all that there was there was an empty wall.

_Where did the door go? What kind of facility even is this?_

Nyarlathotep turned around and, moonwalking, called to Asuka, “Come on, babe! Pick up your tail and start moving!” She chased away the doubts that were creeping into her mind and hurried up to walk alongside Alice and him.

_Focus, Asuka._

Alice glanced at her, then focused on the door ahead of them. She said nothing but clutched a little harder on her stuffed rabbit. They walked in silence, their footsteps heavy on the dark floor. Nyarl reached the end first, still walking backward.

“Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, I welcome you to…” he turned in a complete 180 and walked through the door that slid open, arms splayed open. “The nursery!”

Nyarl was right, though it was a little weird that he knew what it was the moment he saw it. The room wasn’t terribly big, just the size of an average bedroom. The walls were painted with pastel colored blue and green stripes. In the corner there was a crib with a single baby doll in it, eyes closed as if it were sleeping. It was wearing a dark blue onesie with stars all over it, and a full moon over where the heart would be.

_It’s kinda cute._

Next to it was a small table with a white baby bottle on it. Asuka picked up the bottle and shook it. It was empty. She looked at the baby in the crib and noticed that there was an indent where its mouth should have been. Curious, she stuck the bottle inside the babies mouth. It locked in with a click. The baby’s fake eyes shot open and the bottle she placed in the baby’s mouth shot out of it, smacking Asuka in the face.

“Discovering the joys of parenting? Aren’t you a little young to have a baby, sweetheart?” Nyarlathotep had seen the whole thing and was now doubled over laughing. Thankfully, Alice must have been investigating something else, out of Asuka’s line of sight.

Face burning, Asuka looked toward the other side of the room. There was a countertop with a sink, the faucet of which was still dripping. Beneath the counter was a mini fridge, and above it was a single cabinet. Asuka tried to open it, but she could only open about a quarter of an inch wide.

“Tight fit, huh?” Nyarl said, walking over from where he was watching her. “Let ol’ Nyarly take a look.” Nyarl jumped up onto the counter and tried to open the cabinet himself. Just like before, it got stuck on something. He peered down into it, grinning. “Seems someone went and locked this puppy up. If you want to open it up you’ll need something to reach in there, and I doubt your fingers are going to cut it.” He poked at the gap with his finger, but the opening was too small. “Find a toy to loosen it up, then we’ll talk.” He jumped back off the counter and walked over to the entrance, where he leaned against the wall with his eyes fixed on Asuka.

Feeling a little dazed from that, she opened up the mini fridge. While it was empty, the sheer chill that came from it was far colder than what she expected.

_There’s no way that’s a fridge. Judging by how cold it was, I doubt that it’s even a normal freezer._

She turned away from the fridge thing and looked at the rest of the room. On the wall opposite the sink, there was a clock with an open face. No matter how long Asuka stared at it, the hands never moved. Suspicious, she reached out and turned the hands herself. As she went closer and closer to midnight, the colors on the walls changed from pastel blues and greens to darker blues and reds, and eventually to black. At midnight, the ceiling shone with stars and there was a single light in the center, evidently supposed to be the moon. This provided some light for them to still be able to make out what they were doing. Nyarlathotep howled at the moon and cackled, and Asuka changed the time back to noon. The colors returned to what they initially were. Asuka shrugged and turned to the final piece- a door.

The door was already ajar, so when Asuka walked inside the room she wasn’t surprised to find Alice there. The room itself was rather small and vastly different from the nursery. The floor was bare of carpet, instead being comprised of gray tiling. The walls were a simple solid dark gray, and the ceiling had a single light in the middle. The contents of the room consisted of two machines. One of them appeared to be a sort of vending machine, with a keypad on the right with the numbers 1 through 9 on it. The window that would show what combinations gave what was boarded up. Asuka pressed the number 1, and it lit up. Curious, she pressed the number 5 and it lit up as well. She then hit the number 9, and all the lit up numbers switched off.

“It appears,” Alice walked over and stood next to Asuka, staring at the buttons, “that we will need three numbers to get something out of that machine.” She then frowned. “Let us get back to that later. It would be wise to inspect everything before fiddling around.” She glanced at Asuka, unamused.

_Hehe… oops._

The second machine was a small black and red box with open sides sitting on top of a table. On it was the label that read _Replicator_. There was a blank display beneath what appeared to be a slot for some sort of card. Asuka reached out and pressed her finger to the display, but nothing happened.

“I believe that is a 3D printer,” Alice said. She looked at the card slot, then glanced around the room. “I do not suppose you happen to have a card on you, do you?” Asuka just shook her head. Nyarlathotep walked in, apparently bored being in the nursery by himself.

“Watching kids just really ain’t my style, y’know?” He walked up to the vending machine. “I could use a nice can of cola right about now. Not that diet stuff though, tastes like battery acid.” He reached out to press the buttons as Asuka spoke up.

“I already tried that, nothing happened.”

“Oh, did it now? What’s your number?”

“If I remember correctly, it’s 090-1-”

“I believe he meant what numbers you put into the machine. 0 isn’t even listed there.” Alice rolled her eyes, and Nyarl just smirked at her.

“Oh, uh, yes. I was just kidding, you see.” She thought for a moment, then said, “I believe I put in 1, 5, and 9.”

“Understandable, have a great day.” Nyarlathotep turned back to the vending machine and plugged in the numbers 2, 4, and 8. As soon as he pressed the 8, all three colors briefly glowed green and there was a tinny clunking sound from the box where you’d pick up the can. However, in this case, it was a thin tube with a slip of paper inside of it. “You know what, I’m not thirsty after all,” Nyarl cackled and tossed the tube to Asuka, who caught it.

“How did… how did you know what to press?” Asuka gasped, pulling the paper out of the tube.

“Lucky guess.” Nyarl smirked and leaned against the wall, looking at the two of them as if sizing them up. He seemed to be waiting for them to make some sort of connection. Asuka was clueless, but Alice let out a small gasp and walked up to the vending machine.

“Those are the numbers on our bracelets. The numbers that made up the digital root we used to come in here in the first place...” Alice trailed off, and then her grip on her rabbit got slightly more pronounced. “Asuka, can you remember what the other options Shuichi wrote down were?”

“Ah, let’s see… One of the options had you and Ose going through room one, so Ahab would have had to have gone with you. Judging from that, one of the other options for room 5 would have to be me, Shuichi, and Melusine, right? That’d be 1, 4, and 9.”

Alice thought to herself then said, “Yes, that must be right. Oh, you might want to get started with that piece of paper. I assume it will do something with the 3D printer, and those are far from instant.”

“Ah, right.” Asuka looked down at the paper she now held in her hand. It was a flimsy laminated card that read “mold” on it. She slipped it into the machine, and the display showed a block with a long, thin, indent in it. Immediately after, the machine started to move with a low hum, making the object. She turned back to Alice, who was now inputting numbers into the vending machine.

“1, 4, and 9 was it?” She said this and plugged them in. With another tinny noise, the machine coughed up another tube, this time bearing another slip of paper. She walked over and handed it to Asuka, then walked back to the machine. Asuka looked back at the 3D printer, and it was about half done already.

_That was fast._

“Alright, what was the third option... That had the captain and our colorful DJ here going through this room, so that is already 5 and 8. Shuichi would go with them since he was the 1.” She input 1, 5, and 8 into the machine, and once again a small container came out. She handed it to Asuka once again, who opened it up. It help another slip of paper, just like the others.

By now, the 3D printer had finished the block with the indent in it. She then plugged in the second card, which then showed the product on the screen. It appeared to be a small, flat V with a circular piece coming from the bottom of it like a puzzle piece. She looked down at the block she was holding. She flipped it in her hands and strode out of the room.

“If there’s anything that I know, it’s that a hole like this-” Asuka stopped and looked over to the other room, where Alice was still inspecting the vending machine. “Maybe I shouldn’t finish that sentence.”

“Good idea,” Alice called from in the other room, and Asuka winced.

Asuka walked over to the sink and turned the faucet, causing a steady trickle of water to pour down. She positioned the block underneath it so that the hole filled with water. She turned to stick it in the fridge, but Nyarl stopped her and took the block from her.

“Hey, what gives?” Asuka said, but Nyarl just wagged his finger at her.

“Chill out, baby! That fridge is cold as Hell frozen over, we wouldn’t want you to lose a paw right now. Let me finish what you started, my dude.” Nyarl laughed and pulled open the fridge, stuck it in there, then shut it again. He squatted down and stared unnervingly at Asuka, never blinking, a slight smirk on his face. A minute passed, and he opened up the fridge and pulled out the block. The water was now frozen into a long, thin cylinder. He handed the block to Asuka and jumped up onto the counter. He gestured to her again, and she handed him the block. Nyarl then turned it over, smacked it onto his open palm, and then threw the block back down onto the floor. He was now twirling a stick of ice between his fingers.

Asuka’s face lit up and she clapped her hands together. “We can get into the cabinet now, can’t we?”

Nyarl stuck his tongue out and hummed something as he opened up the cabinet as he’d done earlier. This time, however, he used the ice stick to prod at something inside of the cabinet. After a few seconds of his fiddling, he swung the cabinet door wide open and jumped down, smirking. He then gestured up onto the counter. “Well? Are you cah~ming?”

Asuka rolled her eyes and climbed up onto the counter. Looking at the open cabinet, she could see what was blocking it. There was some sort of sliding metal hook inside that used to keep it from opening up entirely.

_Nyarl must have used the ice to unlatch it._

There were two things in this cabinet. The first was a bag that read “Baby Formula: For All your Formulaic Baby Needs.” The second thing was at the very back of the cabinet- the symbol for Yen: ¥. Reaching into the cabinet and grasping at it, Asuka could feel that it was indented into the cabinet itself. That piece that the 3D printer was making looked like it’d fit into the top of it, and she had a hunch that the second slip of paper would make the bottom part.

_I think that’s everything, at least until the pieces are done._

She got off the counter, making sure to take the bag with her. Asuka couldn’t see Nyarl, so she supposed he must have gone back into the room with Alice.

Walking into the closet, Alice was now standing against the wall, holding her rabbit. She seemed to be waiting for Asuka. Nyarl was standing next to the 3D printer, tapping out some complex, unnatural rhythm. The printer had finished with the top part of the yen, which Asuka then picked up. She stuck the last card into the slot and, just as she had predicted, it began to make the bottom of the yen symbol. She turned to Alice.

“Is there something you wanted to talk to me about?”

Alice’s eyes shifted over to her, then she looked away. “To say no would be a lie, but for the moment you should focus on the puzzle with the baby. What I want to discuss can wait.”

Asuka was curious, but she headed back into the nursery room anyways. Reading the instructions, it appeared that this “formulaic baby formula” was quite accurate to its name. On the back was a wall of text that read:

**Formulaic Baby Formula formula! Thanks to advances in baby formula technology, we can now safely say that we at Formulaic Baby Formula have the most advanced formula formula to ever grace the mouth of babies and the minds of parents! In order to determine how much powder you will use, simply find the digital root of the age of the baby in months, and then multiply that by 10. That percent is the ratio of powder to water! Simple!**

“This has got to be the single worst idea for just about anything,” Asuka sighed, then walked over to the baby.

_Sure, now I know the “formula” formula, but how am I supposed to know the baby’s age?_

Asuka looked down at the baby, remembering how it had shot the bottle at her face.

_I guess that means it didn’t have the right concentration of formula in it._

She rubbed her forehead where it had hit her and was about to turn around, but she stopped and picked up the baby doll.

_This baby’s outfit… I wonder if…_

Grinning, she put down the baby and walked over to the clock. She then placed her fingers on the hour hand and turned it. The room got darker, the walls changed colors, and the moon came out. Asuka hurried over to the baby and saw that there was glow-in-the-dark writing over where the moon had been previously. It read “April 1912.”

_1912!? How old is this baby!?_

Asuka paced back and forth.

_Why would the date be from so long ago? That doesn’t make any sense. Well, not that anything has really made any sense ever since I first met Ryota._

She chuckled, then looked up and her eyes went wide. The full moon on the ceiling, which she had just finished pacing under, also had a date on it.

_March 1913. That puts the thing at 11 months old! That’s definitely far more reasonable. Still odd that they used dates from so long ago, though._

Asuka, now finished with finding the dates, turned the lights from dark to light once again. She grabbed the empty bottle and headed over to the sink.

_11 months, so that’s a digital root of 2. That means that the percentage of formula to water is 20%._

_This is really stupid._

Using the measuring cup included in the bag, Asuka measured out one part formula, four parts water, and then mixed them up inside the bottle. The mixture turned bright green, for some reason. She went to stick in the baby when she heard Nyarlathotep call from the other room.

“Sweetie~ the cookies are out of the oven! Come get them while they’re fresh.”

Asuka, still not used to whatever Nyarlathotep was babbling about, set down the bottle next to the crib and walked into the room with Alice and Nyarl. The 3D printer, which Asuka assumed was what Nyarl meant in the first place, had finished with the bottom part of the yen.

“Quick question, That baby was born in April of 1912. Is there anything, uh, special about that date?”

Nyarl’s expression remained as cool as ever, but Alice’s eyebrows raised curiously. “April 1912…? There is not much that comes to mind. I do believe that was the month that the RMS Titanic sunk, however.”

“You don’t think we could, say, be back in time near that date, do you?”

Alice shook her head. “Not a chance. While there are time-related rules, it would take impossible levels of energy to push all nine of us back to the same point in time without serious damage.”

Asuka folded her arms, thinking. “How about pushing us all back in time in general? How far back do you think that could work?”

For some reason, Alice looked over to the vending machine. “At a maximum, I believe it would be possible to send us all back in time up to just a few years.”

“You don’t think it’s a stretch?”

Alice smiled. “When it comes to these powers, a great many things are possible.”

_So Shuichi’s idea has some merit. That’s… unsettling._

“I’m going to go finish up this puzzle, is that alright?”

She looked to Alice, who nodded. Reassured, Asuka grabbed the second piece and left back into the nursery. Climbing on top of the counter, she opened the cabinet and stuck the two pieces into the slot at the back.

_Fits like a glove._

As soon as the second piece locked into place, she heard a small gasp come from the other room, and Nyarl’s continuous tapping, which Asuka only just noticed as it went away, ceased. Curious and a little scared, Asuka rushed back into the room. It was obvious what the two reactions had been about. Toward the back of the room, a large section of wall had slid away, revealing something underneath. There were 9 circles on the wall, 8 of them arranged to surround the 9th. The one in the middle was, much to Asuka’s surprise, her own portrait. It even had the bright blue flower she decorated her hair with.

_Why is my picture in the center? What’s all this about?_

Going clockwise around Asuka were the portraits of Alice, Shiro, Tadatomo, Shuichi, Melusine, Ahab, Nyarlathotep, and Ose. There were lines connecting Alice to Ose, Shiro to Tadatomo, Shuichi to Melusine, and Ahab to Nyarl. Every single portrait had another line connecting them to Asuka. Seeing this, she staggered back.

_What does this…_

Alice coughed, and Asuka looked over at her. Her gaze, fixed on the diagram in front of them, was extremely focused. She spoke up, and her voice was the strongest that Asuka had heard her through this entire ordeal. “I believe this is the best time to bring up what I wanted to tell you earlier.”

She walked over to the desk and sat on top of it, then looked directly at Asuka. Nyarlathotep folded his arms and watched the two of them.

“Asuka, could you kindly stand by the vending machine?” Asuka blinked, still slightly shaken from the pictures on the wall. She heeded Alice’s instructions and walked in front of the machine.

“Now what?”

Alice gripped her rabbit, and slowly swayed her legs. “Remind me again of the three options that had the possibility of going through door number 5, if you will.”

“That was… **2 4 8,** **1 4 9,** and **1 5 8** , right? We tried all of those on the vending machine, and they gave us those slips of paper.”

“Precisely. Now, I do wonder, what is an option that would have given us a digital root of 5 that isn’t one of those three.”

“Er…” Asuka thought for a bit, then replied, “I suppose **3 4 7** would work, wouldn’t it? Me, Ose, and Shiro... I think.”

“How about you try putting that number into the keypad.”

Asuka tilted her head, slightly confused, but inputted it anyways. Upon reaching the third number, the three numbers all glowed red, then the machine evidently reset itself.

“What the-”

“Now, try putting in a set that doesn’t have a digital root of 5. Try **2 5 9** , for instance.”

Asuka put in the series, and upon reaching the third number, all of the lights shut off just like her initial attempt.

“Finally, put in one that we’ve already succeeded with before.”

Asuka, a bead of sweat trickling down her neck, plugged in **2 4 8**. The lights shone blue, then turned off once again. Asuka stepped back from the vending machine, confused.

“From this,” Alice continued, “we can tell what codes the machine wants. First and foremost, it responds only to the digital root of 5. Any other digital root, and there’s no response whatsoever. Second, a code may only be used once. Using a duplicate code just results in a blue glow. Those are important, but the real problem comes from the third point. The only three codes that work are the options we were presented with.”

Asuka scratched the back of her head, confused. Then it hit her.

“Wait a minute, Shuichi came up with those on the spot, didn’t he? Could he be-”

Alice smiled. “No, I do not believe Shuichi is Zero. Were he actually Zero, I highly doubt he would have put himself into the game. Shuichi may have a flair for the dramatic, but his ‘style’ is different from this. Aside from all of that... well, he would never tell a lie. You can trust me on that.”

“If Shuichi isn’t Zero, how would they be able to plan something like that out ahead of time? It’s not like someone could predict the future or something like that, right?” Alice averted her eyes and didn’t say anything. “Er, I am right, aren’t I?”

“I wonder…” Alice trailed off, staring at the arrangement of the 9 of them.

Nyarl squatted down and stared directly at Asuka. “Our friend Zero wasn’t too subtle, were they now? Come on baby, get your head out of the gutter and pay attention! Though then again, maybe Zero knew exactly what they were doing. Who can say, y’know?”

Asuka was confused. “Zero wasn’t subtle? You mean when Tadatomo spoke up and Zero stopped talking? That practically confirms that Zero is watching us somehow.”  

Alice looked at Asuka and clutched her rabbit. “Ah, I see. I thought it was most telling within their first lines. When Zero said ‘if all of you are watching this,’ that meant that the message was pre-recorded. How would the message be pre-recorded but also factor in Tadatomo’s outburst, I do wonder.”

Nyarlathotep cackled, then got to his feet once again. “You see, you’re thinking too hard about this. Start from the bottom and soon you’re on top, you feel me? It’s really very simple. If our masked pal made a prerecorded message and this puzzle with the events that just happened in place, that means that they’d have to know the future before the past could even happen. Or perhaps another way to put it would be that…” Nyarl paused for dramatic effect,  “...actions that were made in the future influenced the past.”

Asuka was left completely speechless, her mouth open wide.

_How could something in the future affect the past? Who in the world would even believe that?_

“I see. It’s starting to make sense now,” Alice said, nodding.

_She actually agrees with him!?_

Alice turned her head toward Asuka. “Asuka, have you ever heard of the _Morphogenetic Field?_ ”

“The morphing whatsit? Is that some sort of sacred artifact?”

Alice’s mouth curved in a slight smile and she looked off to the side. “No, it’s not a sacred artifact. Although, I believe that the morphogenetic field does play a big part in how roles and rules are passed along, and even in how they function.”

“But what is it?”

Alice paused before saying, “The _Morphogenetic Field_ is… hard to explain. You could say that it’s an invisible field that stores and transmits information.”

“Where is this thing? Is it around the Earth?”

“That is really the tricky part. The Morphogenetic Field does not follow the same rules of time and space that you and I do. The information that is stored in the field is not just the past or current information. It also contains information on that which has yet to occur.” She paused and closed her eyes. “It would be a lot easier to explain this with some sort of example. I wonder…” She opened her eyes and looked directly at Asuka, a smile on her face. “Have you ever come to know something that could not have possibly happened yet? You being you, I imagine it is more than likely.”

Asuka was stumped. She leaned back on the wall and thought, and then the truth hit her like a bolt of lightning. “I have, actually! There was one night where I spent the night on Ahab’s ship- long story. I couldn’t get to sleep so I went out on the deck, but we weren’t in Tokyo bay anymore- and then there was a massive storm...” She averted her eyes and finished, “The captain and I faced some terrifying sea creature. We beat it, but its dying thrashes were churning the sea and rocking the boat too much. He… he made me the captain and then locked me inside of a cabin. I... I can still remember his last smile...” Asuka slowly sat down on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees. “But… when I left the cabin, the night was clear again and we were back in Tokyo bay. The captain was fine, but I know it wasn’t just some dream. I knew things I couldn’t know…”

She looked up at the other two. Alice was looking at her with a sympathetic expression, and even the grin that was plastered on Nyarl’s face was gone. After a moment, Alice nodded.

“I am… sorry that happened to you. However, if you will forgive my bluntness, that is a perfect example. As you know by now, sacred artifacts are tied to their other wielders. Should someone not be careful, the memories associated with past users may override their own. In a sense, you could say that the sacred artifact allows the user access to the morphogenetic field, so long as it is in regards to their other users. Usually, only certain people could access it, but when the app is involved, a large portion of the usual rules are ignored. When Captain Ahab gave you command over the ship, he passed along his sacred artifact to you- that knife that signifies ownership over the ship. This created a strong link to the morphogenetic field at that specific moment in time.” She sighed and stopped swinging her feet. “Having such a strong link to the morphogenetic field, combined with your emotional state, let you transfer your consciousness to yours back on that ship, back on the night that you remember as being calm.”

“Hold on, my consciousness did what now?”

Alice smiled, then continued, “Think of it like how past memories could overcrowd the current owner of the sacred artifact. Because the very nature of the morphogenetic field transcends time itself, it is also possible for a future existence to take over your own. The difference being that, as memories would have to fight against the flow of time, it requires a tremendous amount of force of will. An example of this would be the will to return to a time where Ahab was still alive, where things were calm, and where you could fix what went wrong. And so, you ‘shifted’ your consciousness into your past self. The problem with shifting like this is that you do not retain all of your memories, at least not normally. That must be why you only remember the day that the captain met an untimely end.”

“So I traveled back into the past.”

“Technically you shifted into an alternate timeline, but yes, that is accurate enough.”

Asuka rubbed her eyes, realizing that she hadn’t blinked through the entire explanation. “I guess that… makes sense. So what does this have to do with that?” She pointed back at the vending machine.

This time it was Nyarlathotep who spoke up. “Baby baby baby, can’t you tell? You’re not the only one who can shift their point of view!”

“He is right,” Alice agreed. “You are not the first, and nor will you be the last to use the morphogenetic field to their own advantage. I imagine Nyarlathotep here practically lives inside the field when he has his ‘clones’ out. Perhaps that is how he can ‘be’ all of them at the same time. And more importantly…” She looked over at the vending machine once again. “Nyarlathotep is insinuating that Zero has some experience with the morphogenetic field. Our captor left us the message that both implied that they had prerecorded the message, while also knowing that Tadatomo would speak up at that moment. Additionally, Zero knew all three options that Shuichi came up for us. I believe it is safe to assume that Zero has, in a sense, been this Zero before. Perhaps even more than once. It could be that whatever plan Zero had failed, so they ‘shifted’ to try again, changing the circumstances.”

Asuka stood up. “Wait a minute, you said that memories don’t stay after shifting! How would Zero remember something like that?”

Nyarlathotep cackled, “Aha! Careful sweaty, this might just be very important. Our friendly gamemaster here did say ‘usually,’ did she not?”

“Thank you, Nyarlathotep.”

“Hey now, don’t be so stiff~ just call me DJ!”

“I would prefer not to. In any case,” she carried on, ignoring Nyarl’s laughter, “If a ‘shifter’ is well trained enough, they can jump without losing hold of their memories. I wonder just how many times Zero has shifted if they are so confident in Tadatomo’s outburst and Shuichi’s options…”

Asuka stood there in silence, processing everything. “How… how do you know this thing exists, anyway?”

Alice smiled and shook her head. “Besides the evidence shown through sacred artifacts? I am a gamemaster, remember? The app is practically built with the morphogenetic field in mind.”

“Jeeze. Who came up with the app, anyway?”

Alice opened her mouth and closed it. She looked lost in thought. A minute passed before she answered. “I do not believe it would be wise to tell you everything about the app, at least not now. However…” She looked down at her rabbit, avoiding Asuka’s gaze. “I believe I can tell you that the idea to build it into the morphogenetic field came from the field itself.”

“What do you mean ‘it came from the field?’ Doesn’t the information have to come from something in the real world? Well,” she corrected herself, “worlds, I suppose.”

“Yes, that it does. Whether the information comes from the living beings or nonliving objects, it has to originate outside of the field. What we believe is that the decision to incorporate the field so strongly came from a timeline outside of our own. That’s the extent of what I can tell you, I am afraid.”

“Huh.” Asuka stared at the diagram of everyone surrounding her, lost for words. After a few minutes of tense silence, Asuka stood up. “I think I should go ahead and finish the puzzle. With any luck, I’m just one step from closing this out.” With that, she walked out of the room and back into the nursery.

Nyarlathotep stood up and stretched. “Alright, let’s go get this show on the road, babe!” He left too.

Alice hopped off the desk and, turning one last time to look at the diagram, followed Nyarl out of the room.

Finishing what they’d interrupted her with, Asuka took the bottle and stuck it inside the baby’s mouth. There was a click, and the bottle drained of all the green fluid. A second later, part of the wall with the clock on it swung open, revealing a sliding door, just like every other one they had encountered. They had found the exit.

“Jinkies!” Nyarl yelled, jumping into Asuka’s arms, who caught him effortlessly. “You know babe, you’re a lot stronger than you look!” Asuka unceremoniously dropped him onto the ground with a loud thud.

“Let’s get going, alright?” Asuka said that then led the way through the sliding door, Nyarl and Alice following in her wake.

The moment the sliding door shut and the wall fixed itself back in place, the lights in both rooms all turned off. On the back wall of the other room, where the display was, glowing tally marks appeared next to each line connecting the pairs. Hundreds in total, scrawling all over the wall. Lines upon lines, radiating from the central picture of Asuka. The flower in her hair was surrounded by crudely-drawn, purple circles.

The room they entered wasn’t a hallway like the rest.

_Is this… an elevator?_

As Asuka was thinking this, she felt the ground beneath her move. Sure enough, the three of them were in an elevator, and it was taking them downwards. The tense silence between the three of them gave Asuka a moment to think.

_All that stuff about the morphogenetic field… could it all be true? I suppose it does explain what happened that night on the ship. If both Alice and Nyarl believe that it’s real so strongly, then what reason do I have to disagree? And besides…_

The elevator started to slow down.

_Both Shuichi and Alice think Zero did something to mess with time. I wonder… when are we?_

Finally, they reached the floor they were headed down to, and the doors opened up. What Asuka saw in front of her distracted her from her thoughts. It was a large circular room completely devoid of furniture, with the exception of a single water dispensing machine sitting next to a table with a pile of paper cups. There was a little slip of paper attached to the water tank that said: “remember to stay hydrated!”

_...How thoughtful?_

Despite how odd it was, she took one of the disposable cups from the table, poured herself some water, and took a sip. It was very cool and refreshing. Taking the cup with her, Asuka walked up to the biggest feature of the room. Composing the wall of half the room was a giant window. It was very dark, just a few lights on the outside of the window, so it was fairly difficult to make out anything inside. Asuka placed her hand on the cool glass and looked closer. Just then, something floated across the window, causing her to jump back. The lights seemed to glow a bit brighter, further illuminating what laid beyond the window.

_An aquarium?_

“Under the sea, under the sea~ Darling it's better, down where it's wetter, take it from meee~” Nyarl had wandered over, carrying his own cup of water. “You understand what she meant back there?”

The straightforward nature of the question took Asuka by surprise. “About the morphogenetic field, you mean? I think I get it for the most part.”

“Good,” Nyarl looked at her, amused. “I’ve got a feeling that you’ll want to understand that properly to make sense of everything that’s coming next.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, you’ll see. You don’t want to know the stripper is in the birthday cake until you open it up, after all!” He then walked off, humming to himself. Asuka stared at him, confused and a little unnerved.

As the three of them were the first there, all they could do was wait for the rest to show up. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long. The first elevator, to the right of the one that Asuka had exited, opened up. Coming from it was Shiro, Melusine, and Ahab. Asuka, still sitting down next to the window, waved at them. Both Ahab and Shiro saw her wave and walked toward her, but when Shiro walked ahead of Ahab, Ahab stopped and scratched the back of his head. Looking very awkward, he turned around and walked toward the water, his tail twitching. Asuka sighed and shook her head.

“Asuka, are you alright?” Shiro said, squatting down next to her.

“Heh, yeah I’m fine.” She glanced at Shiro, then added, “You know, you have pretty nice thighs.”

Shiro smacked her on the back of her head with his papers.

_Worth it._

“If you’re joking around like that, you must be fine. You know, I’m really starting to think things will turn out okay. Aside from these,” he said, cupping his hand over the bracelet, “the puzzles haven’t been actively malicious or anything. I do wonder what the point of this all is, though.”

Asuka looked at Shiro’s reflection in the glass. “Wait a minute. You’re a nerd, Shiro.”

“What? Who are you, Kengo?” Shiro retorted, adjusting his glasses.

“Just bear with me, alright. Have you ever heard of the ‘morphogenetic field?’”

“Er, yes. I have looked into it a few times, it’s all very mysterious. How do you know about it though?”

Asuka looked off to the side and replied, “Alice and Nyarl seem to think that this game has something to do with it.”

Shiro nodded. “I see. I hadn’t thought about it, but I think that could make sense, actually. It’d certainly explain that discrepancy with what Zero said during the presentation.”

Asuka grinned at him. “How do you know about the morphogenetic field?”

Shiro looked around the room and noticed the water dispenser. “I… read about it online.”

“Nerd.”

“Oh shut up. By the way, did you-”

“Yes, I had some of the water. No, I’m not dying. It’s fine.”

“You’re putting a lot of trust in Zero, you know.”

“I would trust Zero with my life,” Asuka quipped. “It’s fine, go get a cup of your own, thirsty boy.”

Shiro rolled his eyes and left to get a glass of his own. Several minutes later, Asuka could hear the telltale sound of Ahab’s metal leg on the carpet. He sat down next to her and stared through the window. Blowing smoke out his nose, Ahab lifted the pipe from his mouth. The expression on his face was as if he were thinking of something he lost.

Concerned about this, Asuka asked, “Captain? Is there something on your mind?”

He continued to stare through the window, but he opened a heavy mouth. “Seein’ the water through this window… reminds me of all me sailors in the past. Ye landlubbers don’t realize the price of bein’ careless at sea until it be too late. Slack off at the wrong moment before ye’ve done what needs to be done, and it can cost ye yer life. Or… it could cost others theirs.” He stared down at the pipe in his hand. “The most dangerous part of the sea ain’t the surface. It’s what lies beneath, where ye can’t see what’s lyin’ in wait for ye.” He looked at Asuka’s reflection. “Don’t let yer guard down, lass.”

He stood up and ruffled Asuka’s hair. As he turned around, Asuka called out, “Captain!”

Surprised, he turned back toward her. “What do ye want?”

“You know you can join me and my friend anytime you want, right? I saw you turn around back there,” she said grinning, thinking back to when he turned around.

Ahab flushed and said, “I don’t know what ye’re talkin’ about. Don’t be a wee brat.”

“You’re still holding your excuse, Captain.”

“No, I’m not,” he grunted, then tossed the cup he was holding at Asuka where it bonked off her head. “Clean that up.”

_Good thing it’s empty, hehe._

She grinned and picked up the bent cup as Ahab walked over to another spot along the wall, where he stared out the window into the dark water while muttering something about, “teasin’ this ol' man.”

On the other side of the room from Ahab, Melusine was standing in front of the glass. However, she wasn’t staring into the water. Instead, she was holding a paper, staring at it as if trying to memorize whatever was on it. Asuka got up and walked over to her.

“What’s that?” Asuka asked, smiling.

“W-What’s what?” Melusine hid the paper behind her and looked up. Seeing Asuka, she relaxed and pulled it out again, then handed it to her. To Asuka’s surprise, it was a portrait of Melusine herself. It was beautifully made, and hand drawn, from the looks of it. It looked like whoever made it put a lot of effort into it. While it was clearly stylized, was a very pleasant picture of her. Turning it over, Asuka could see that it had a date written on it.

“Wow. This is insanely good!” Looking at the date, she could see that it was from last Christmas. “Was this a gift from Licht?” She handed the drawing back to Melusine, who held it and stared at it.

“Yes, it was. He said he wanted to thank me for my loyalty, so he made me this portrait. It’s just… the way that he captured my expression here is exactly how I was when he presented me with it. Even looking at it now, I can hardly believe that he knows me so well that he could make this…” She trailed off. She then sighed and, much to Asuka’s astonishment, opened her wings. She stowed away the paper inside, then closed them once again.

Seeing the look of shock on Asuka’s face, she explained while blushing, “Oh, you’re wondering why I store it in my wings? That has to do with how my sacred artifact works. Since they’re tied to me, I’ll always have it with me no matter what. Plus, there’s no danger of it getting damaged or lost. That goes for anything in there, really. It’s the perfect way to keep monsieur Licht’s drawing just as good as the day I got it. At least there’s something good about them...”

Asuka was about to ask about what else she has in her wings when the last elevator opened up. Out walked Ose, followed by Tadatomo and Shuichi. Shuichi seemed to be lost in thought, while Ose surveyed the room in a quick glance. Tadatomo just got some water. Seeing everyone in one place reminded Asuka. Looking down at her watch, she could see that she was now the number 8. Unlike last time, however, they now had 20 minutes until they had to next enter the room.

_Where are the doors?_

Nearly as soon as she thought that, the wall slid shut over the elevators, causing Tadatomo to spill his drink. A few seconds later, the walls slid once more to reveal the elevators. However, they now had numbers spray painted on them in bright red. They were labeled with **3** , **7** , and **8.**

Shuichi downed a glass of water and said, “Well, looks like we don’t have much time. Everyone give me your numbers.” They all obliged. Going from 1 to 9 was Ahab, Shiro, Ose, Tadatomo, Nyarlathotep, Shuichi, Melusine, Asuka, and Alice. “Now listen up. Unless you have any objections, I’m just going to do what I did last time. Well, that’s somewhat of a lie, we’re running out of time so I don’t really care if you disagree.” He pulled a piece of paper and a pen from the conference room out of his pocket. On it he wrote:

  * **(3)- 5 7 9  (7)- 4 2 1 (8)- 3 6 8**


  * **(3)- 1 3 8  (7)- 4 5 7 (8)- 2 6 9**


  * **(3)- 1 2 9  (7)- 4 5 7 (8)- 3 6 8**



He then passed around the paper.

“I don’t believe this will cause any problems, will it?” The paper got passed around until, finally, it reached Alice. She read through it, then closed her eyes.

“Is something the matter, Alice?” Melusine asked.

“I believe there is one problem with this. It lies in the first option, with Shiro and Tadatomo.”

Shiro looked at Tadatomo then asked, “what do you mean? Surely there isn’t some sort of conflict with our rules, is there?”

Alice glanced at the two of them. “You two should have nothing to fear about causing an exception unless it is under some highly specific circumstance. The problem is with something that Asuka, Nyarlathotep, and I discovered in the room we were in. After solving a puzzle, a segment of the wall slid away and revealed a diagram composing of Asuka and the rest of us surrounding her. Here, allow me to draw it out.” She received the pen and paper from Shuichi and drew out the diagram they had found. Where the portraits were, she instead wrote out their names. She then connected them like they were back in the nursery.

She pointed to the connecting line between herself and Ose, and then to the one connecting Ahab and Nyarlathotep. “As we established earlier, it would be unwise to have myself and Ose go into the same room, as our rules could conflict should we be careless. The same applies to Captain Ahab and Nyarlathotep. If we assume that this is not just a coincidence, and this line represents the possibility of an exception, it means that Tadatomo and Shiro, as well as Melusine and Shuichi, can create exceptions with the other. As for how the latter exception would happen… At least in the case of Shiro and Tadatomo, the case is so specific that they would hopefully never do it willingly. But…”

Shuichi and Melusine looked at each other, confused. “What could the two of us do that would cause an exception?” Melusine asked.

“I have not the slightest idea. Some of the details elude me- not the least of which is the reason that Asuka has been tied to all of us. I do not believe she could or would cause an exception with most of us, so perhaps the connection does not imply an exception. However,” she looked directly at Shuichi, “I believe it would be for the best to be cautious about this. Let us remove option one.”

Shuichi shrugged, then pointed to his bracelet. It showed that they had 5 minutes left. “Alright, but we’re running low on time,” Shuichi said, a bead of sweat revealing the pressure he was feeling. “Asuka, how about you decide.”

Asuka, who had been watching the minutes left on her bracelet, looked up with a start. “Me? Why me?”

Shuichi laughed and handed her the paper with the two remaining options and the diagram showing Asuka in the middle. “Clearly our fates are all bound to yours, somehow. Just pick one, it doesn’t really matter.”

_In the second option, I go with Ahab and Ose through the number 3 elevator. In the third, I go through the number 8 door with Shuichi and, again, Ose._

With one glance and a sly grin toward Ahab, and she made up her mind.

“I’ll go through door 3 with the Captain and Ose. That means that Tadatomo, Nyarl, and Melusine will go through door 7, and Shiro, Shuichi, and Alice will go through door 8. Is that good? Sorry, Shuichi.”

Shuichi grinned. “It’s no problem, I expected you’d pick that one anyway.”

Ahab scoffed. “Ye’re predictable as ever, sailor.”

They all gathered around their respective elevators. There were just two minutes left.

Tadatomo laughed nervously and asked, “Alice, what ‘circumstance’ would cause me and the book guy over there to cause an exception?”

Alice turned toward her elevator, and gripped her rabbit, avoiding his gaze.

“That is... nothing you have to worry about. Not for the moment.”

“I… see.”

Then they all entered their respective elevators, the doors shutting close behind them. The walls once again enveloped the doors, and not a moment later, there was a loud creaking noise. Just as the number would have hit 0 on the bracelets, the glass cracked and gave in, causing water to flood the now empty room.

 


	4. A Facade of Bliss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ahab, Asuka, and Ose find themselves at their next puzzle.  
> (Things might get a bit sappy and shippy)

Shortly after the door closed, the elevator began moving up with a low hum. Asuka was sure that, wherever they were headed now, they would reach their destination soon. The atmosphere was tense, and none of them said a word. Ose was looking at Asuka out of the corner of his eye, and Ahab was standing against the wall, smoking on his pipe.

_You’d think he’d be running low on... whatever it is he’s smoking._

At his side was that harpoon, that which he had called the _arrow that pierces the heavens_. The tool that, according to Alice, could very well cause some very serious problems. There was a part of her that wondered how heavy it was, considering Ahab was constantly lugging it around. She was pretty sure she could carry it if she wanted to, though. Then, as the elevator slowed down, Asuka couldn’t help but imagine what sort of room they would be going through this time.

_A laundry room, maybe? Perhaps a library? We haven’t gone through a lab, that sounds like an easy idea. Or maybe…_

She looked toward Ahab.

_Maybe a bedroom or a public bath~?_

The elevator stopped, and the door opened into a hallway with another sliding door at the end. Ose walked out then Ahab followed, calling back to her, “Door’s open, sailor. Wipe that grin off yer face and focus!”

Asuka came to her senses and followed after him. The moment she passed over the threshold of the elevator, the door closed. The door ahead of them slid open the moment they walked closer, finally showing what room they would be going through. In the bright light Asuka’s eyes widened, Ahab stopped puffing on his pipe, and even Ose stopped.

Asuka ran into the room then, beaming, she swiveled around to the other two. “Is this… some sort of wedding hall?”

“It appears so,” Ose said as he looked around, then smiled at Asuka. “You sure are excited.”

Asuka, unable to keep the grin off her face, took in the entire room. The room was very tall, the walls of which boasted impressive stained glass arrangements, one on each wall. The two of them had very similar scenes. On one side there was a girl wearing pink, evidently sobbing before some sort of display. Around her was darkness, which in turn was surrounded by a faint orange glow. On the opposite side of the room was a similar scene, but it was in reverse. Where the first window showed a young girl, this one had a young man in blue. Something about his posture, the very way he was interacting with the display, made him seem very determined.

_It feels like… they’re connected. Something other than just how similar they are, that is._

Turning her eyes away from the stained glass, she could see that there two sets of 20 chairs in front of the altar, which consisted of a beautiful arch with a vast assortment of white flowers. These rows of chairs were split down the middle by a red carpet. There were pink flower petals scattered throughout the entire floor. Behind the altar, in the very corner of the room, there was a pipe organ. Up toward the altar, there were three spots designated with red X’s.

_These must be where they stand during the wedding._

Asuka looked around and, when she was sure that neither of the other two was watching, she stepped onto one of them. The ground immediately sunk down by a centimeter.

“Ah-!” Asuka, not remotely expecting that, fell over.

“Are you alright?”

Asuka looked up to see Ose reaching out his hand. She took it, and he helped her up to her feet. “Yeah, I’m fine. Turns out that those X’s are pressure plates or something. I stepped on that one,” she pointed to the one on the left, “and the ground dipped down.”

“I see,” Ose said as he walked over to the same place and stepped down on the red X. Nothing happened. He stepped in turn on the rightmost one and the one behind those two, where the minister would stand. Once again, nothing happened. “Hm. Perhaps I’m not the right fit for this, at least not right now. Let’s get back to this later, shall we?” He winked, then walked off toward the organ.

_He totally saw me in the first place._

Sighing, she turned away from the altar. There were just two areas that she hadn’t explored yet, the first of which being a buffet. Arranged on it was an assortment of desserts, desserts, and more desserts. There were cookies, ranging from chocolate chip to oatmeal raisin. There were all kinds of puddings and brownies and fudges. At the very end of the table, there was a multilayered wedding cake with flowers made of icing all over it. At the very top of the cake was a little cake topper, showing the bride and groom. Asuka’s heart skipped a beat.

_Is that… me and the captain?_

Sure enough, the two toppers consisted of Ahab in a tuxedo and Asuka in a bridal gown. Asuka stared at it, feeling somewhat in a daze. Blushing, she turned around and walked over to the last remaining thing to investigate, which consisted of a small bar with all sorts of alcoholic drinks behind it. Ahab was already there, leaning on the counter. Judging by the glass in front of him, he had already drunk some.

Asuka went behind the bar. “What’s up, Cap’n?”

Ahab looked up as if he only just now noticed that she was there. “Hey, kid.” He swirled the drink inside the cup and smirked at her. “What’re ye doin’ behind the bar? Ye shouldn’t drink when there’s still work ta be done.”

Asuka laughed. “What, like you?”

Ahab rubbed his eyes. “Ah, I wish. Whatever this stuff is, it ain’t good. Most a' these ain't even got a label.” He held up a bottle of some drink called _Zero Time Dilemma_. He then put it down and sighed. “Tasty enough, but it sure ain’t strong. Whoever this ‘Zero’ is, they must be a lightweight. Heh. Maybe it be weak on purpose.”

“Yeah, it’s probably for the best that you don’t get too drunk.” Asuka laughed, and Ahab smirked slightly.

He turned around and leaned back on the bar top. “Sure is fancy.”

“It’s nice, don’t you think?”

“Mm. It feels a lil’ too… bright. But if ye like it…” Ahab trailed off.

Asuka, who had been inspecting the various types of alcohol, looked over at Ahab. He was staring directly across the room toward the top of the wedding cake. She felt her face getting red.

“You, ah, like the cake, Captain?” Asuka blurted out before she could stop herself.

“...Come again? I-I’m sure I ain't got a clue what ye’re goin’ on about.” He tore his gaze away from the cake and looked back to Asuka. He looked just as embarrassed as Asuka felt. “Er… we still need to find the way out. Yes. Get on that, sailor.”

Asuka stuck her tongue out at Ahab. “Hey now, I’m not the one who stopped for suspiciously titled drinks.”

“Good grief, lass. Get back ta work.” He put his glass down and walked off toward the back of the room, muttering something about “that wee brat.”

_Heh, cutie. Though... I wonder how he felt, seeing that..._

Asuka smacked her cheeks and got back to work. True to what Ahab had said, a lot of the drinks didn’t have any labels. Aside from the one called _Zero Time Dilemma_ , there were nine others, each titled a number 1 through 9. Asuka took them all out and set them on the bar. Doing this, she noticed that there were three spots where a glass would fit. Curious, she put an empty glass inside one of the spots. A glowing red circle appeared underneath the cup. When she picked up the cup again, it vanished.

_Interesting. I’ll have to come back to this later, seeing as how I don’t have any clues. What else is there to really look at though?_

Asuka’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the organ filling the hall. Rushing over, she saw that it was Ose was at the keys, looking at some piece of sheet music. Half a minute after seeing Asuka, his hands lifted from the organ and he turned toward her. Ahab showed up moments later.

“What’re ye lot doin’?” Ahab yelled, smoke blowing out his nose.

Ose had a faint grin on his face. “Calm down there, Captain. I happened to find this piece of music tucked into the flowers over by the altar.” He picked up the paper he found and handed it to Asuka. “I figured that I’d play it.”

True to his word, it was a piece of sheet music. It wasn’t particularly long, just a single page. Flipping it over, there was nothing on the back. Asuka, puzzled, tried to show it to Ahab, but he had walked off somewhere. Shrugging, she returned it to Ose.

“I didn’t realize that you can play. It’s impressive!” Asuka said, her face glowing.

Ose smiled and stood up from the bench and gave a light smile. “Thank you, Asuka.” He then added with a wink, “Perhaps I could play some more for you later. For now, though, I think we should go ahead and find whatever changed.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Ahab called from the other side of the room. “Hey, ye two done chattin’? A box came out o’ the wall!”

The two of them followed the sound of Ahab’s voice and found him on the other side of the room, hidden through all the decorations. Judging by the way the flowers were scattered about, he had dug through them to get at the thing he had found- a small wooden box. On the side of it was a small keyhole surrounded by a reflective gold surface. Asuka knelt down and tried to open it.

“It’s locked.”

Ahab snorted. “Never woulda guessed.”

Ose gave a short laugh and then said, “Hold tight, I think I have an idea.” He then walked off.

Ahab looked at Asuka. “Ye’know everyone here, don’t ye, lass? Tell me about ‘em.”

“Ah, well,” She counted on her fingers, “first there’s Shiro, he’s the one with glasses. He’s the second in command at my guild and usually makes all the decisions. He’s very reliable, though can be pretty timid at times.”

“With ye as guild master, I’m not surprised.” He smirked and added, “Knowin’ ye, I can’t even imagine what kind o’ danger ye get into on yer own. Best for him ta be the leader.”

“Yeah yeah, it’s not like I can do much with the guild anyways when I’m helping you on your ship.” Asuka retorted, grinning as well. Ahab shrugged, then puffed on his pipe. “Second is Shuichi, he’s the guy in the white collared shirt who keeps making all our choices. He’s pretty smart, though not as much as his brother from what I hear. He’s also pretty over the top sometimes.”

“I wonder what his brother be like if that be the case.”

Asuka laughed. “Shuichi really loves his brother, Duo, but he doesn’t seem to reciprocate as much. Though maybe he just keeps himself distant, like a certain someone I know.” Ahab just rolled his eye.

“Third is Tadatomo, he’s the dog transient. He can be pretty high strung and also sometimes a bit on the dramatic side, though he’s pretty good at heart. He did try to kidnap me when we first met but we’re good now. Turns out I’m actually his father’s liege or something like that.”

“Ye were nearly kidnapped, but ye still consider him a friend?”

“When you put it like _that_ , it sounds way worse than it is.”

“Brats these days…”

“Fourth is Alice, she’s actually a gamemaster behind the app,” Asuka held up her phone, “but she’s really quite nice. Trying to get her to explain something is usually pretty confusing though. She also usually hangs out with a cute bear transient named Jambavan."

“...Cute, ye say?”

“Yeah! He’s big and fuzzy. Very cute.”

“Ye don’t have high standards do ye.”

“He’s also usually wearing a lab coat, which is cute. Uniforms are pretty hot.”

Ahab smirked. “Real subtle, lass.”

_I didn’t say that out loud… did I?_

Asuka coughed. “Anyway, then there’s Nyarlathotep. I call him Nyarl, which is just about the only part of him that I can make not as confusing. It’s pretty hard to tell what he’s thinking, but I figure he’s got to be pretty perceptive.”

Ahab puffed out some smoke and looked over at his harpoon.

She counted off a sixth finger. “Let's see, who next...? Ah, right! Next is this hot, dorky old man that looks pretty comfortable to sleep beside, personally-”

Ahab rolled his eye, a slight blush on his cheeks. “Who next.”

“Well, then there’s Melusine. She’s the lady in the blue maid outfit with the blue horns. She’s pretty cool. She has a lot of guns stored in her wings, so that’s neat. Oh, and she was there during that Roppongi incident I mentioned back on your ship!”

“I see. She’d be a very capable sea-farer. What about the leopard boy? What be his deal?”

“Honestly, he’s the one I know the least about. He’s kind of like Nyarl in that it’s hard to tell what exactly he’s thinking, but he’s far more… collected about it. At least he’s polite, right?”

Ahab thought for a moment. “Aye. He plays his cards to his chest, that’s true. But he must be tryin’ to get out o’ here just as much as the rest of us-”

“Talking about me?” Ose walked up to them, evidently done with whatever he was doing. Neither of them responded. “It’s fine, I don’t mind. I’d imagine you’ll find out something else about me soon enough, in any case.” He then knelt down next to the box, put something into the lock, and the box sprung open.

“Woah! You found the key?”

“Where’d ye find it?” Ahab asked.

A sly grin spread across Ose’s face. “In plain sight, really.” He stood up, turned to face the other two, and held out his hand. In it was the cake topper with miniature Ahab and Asuka on it.

_Ah._

Asuka felt her face go red and turned to look at Ahab. He must have done the same, as their eyes met. After what felt like an eternity, both of them looked away. She could feel herself getting more and more flushed.

“Where… where’d ye get somethin’ like that?” Ahab asked, his voice shaking slightly.

_As if you didn’t see it before!_

Asuka looked at Ose, whose face was now covered with a broad grin.

_He’s enjoying this way too much!_

“Don’t worry, you two.” Ose laughed. “I won’t tell anyone about this room if you don’t want me to.”

“I mean… I certainly wouldn’t mind.” Asuka, still red, found herself grinning.

“Good grief- If ye tell anyone, ye’ll be sleepin’ with the fishes, got it?”

Ose laughed again. “If you insist,” and he tossed the topper to Ahab, who caught it.

Asuka laughed nervously, then squatted down to get at the contents of the box. The gold around the lock was now caked in icing, but it was still reflective enough to see Ahab stow away the topper in his coat.

_“Real subtle, lass,” he says. Ok then, Captain._

Trying her best to ignore the two behind her, she reached down into the box and pulled out a single sheet of paper. She pulled it out and stood up, looking at the other two. Ose looked very amused, while Ahab was doing his best not to look at her. She noticed that he had a flower petal on the top of his head, which made her giggle at his expense.

“What’s got ye like this now?” Ahab said, smoke blowing out his nostrils.

“Nothing! It’s nothing. Anyway, all that was in the box was this piece of paper.” Asuka coughed and began to read it aloud.

“Root. Bride Groom Minister. Zero is the key.”

Ahab and Ose waited for her to continue, but after a few seconds of silence, they opened their mouths.

“Was that it?” Ose said, his faint smirk still on his face.

“Well, that was helpful.” Ahab sighed then muttered, “Of all the times not ta have any good drink…”

_That’s it!_

Asuka ran over to the bartender side of the bar and pulled out three glasses. Ose walked up on the other side, and Ahab joined shortly after.

“What gives, lass?” Ahab asked, startled.

Asuka, grabbing all the bottles of alcohol and setting them in order 1 through 9, explained, “These bottles are one of the few things that we haven’t dealt with in this room yet, right? That sheet said ‘bride groom minister’ in that specific order, and over here,” she pointed to the bartop in front of her, “there are three different indents to set cups down! When you said you needed a drink, that’s when I made the connection. We have to get you a drink!”

“I’m impressed. Well done, lass,” Ahab said, looking over the nine bottles. “What drinks do ye plan on makin’ us?”

Asuka almost missed the question as she was basking in the glow of the compliment. “Huh? Oh, right. I think we’ll have to mix the numbers to make cocktails matching the ‘roots’ of the bride, groom, and minister, then place them in those indents in that order. Now that I’m saying it out loud, it almost feels blindingly obvious.”

Ahab picked up the number 1 bottle. “I feel like I know the answer already, but what numbers do ye think we’re supposed to be usin’ as the ‘root?’”

Ose leaned back against the bar. “Judging by certain decorations, I think it is safe to assume that Asuka is the bride, you are the groom,” he paused to adjust his bowtie, “whereas I am the minister,” he finished with a wink.

“Great,” Ahab said, and poured himself a glass from the number 7 bottle. “A wedding with a couple brats and… me.” He drank it up and shuddered a bit. “Ugh. Zero has terrible taste in drink.”

“Anyway,” Ose continued, “if we take it to mean that the number on our bracelets is the ‘root,’ then we’ll have to combine those drinks. I’d imagine we have to split them into groups of three while we’re at it, to go along with Zero’s rules. This means we’ll have to find some combination that satisfies Asuka the bride with the root of **8,** Ahab the groom with the root of **1,** and myself being the minister with the number **3**. You got all that?”

Asuka thought for a moment. “Hold on, is that actually possible? If I’m right about this, then any combination of **1** and **3** would have to have a **5** as the third number in order to use all nine of these bottles. I don’t think an **8** drink would actually be possible, would it?”

Ose grinned. “Oh, very good. However, you seem to be forgetting something that really makes this little puzzle nothing short of trivial.”

“What’s that?”

Ahab put down his drink and pulled out his papers, which he then showed to Asuka. He pointed out one specific phrase.

**Two or more bracelets can have the same number.**

Ahab pulled his papers back and stowed them away in his coat pocket. “Good grief, brat. Ye could stand ta be less laid back. Ye never know when Zero could pull the rug from under ye.”

“I’m going to have to agree with the captain on this one. After all, we still don’t even know where we are.”

_Or, if Shuichi and Alice are right, “when” we are._

Asuka sighed. “Alright, I get it.” She set down one glass into each of the indents in the table. She started from her right, which she assumed was supposed to be the bride’s glass.

_Then again, isn’t it supposed to be “my” glass?_

“Let’s see... I’m number 8, so I’ll use a bit of **3** , **5** , and **9**.” She poured each of them respectively, and the liquid settled down into three layers. The light didn't change.

Ose chuckled and handed her the bottle Ahab was drinking out of earlier, the drink labeled _Zero Time Dilemma_. " _Zero is the key_ , right? I believe we'll have to add that zero into the mix in order for this to go properly."

Asuka stared hard into the bottle. "Wouldn't that go against their rules? If we're limited to 3..."

Ose thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Maybe this is their way of saying 'zero doesn't count?' I do think it is possible that this is Zero trying to hint at something." He paused then added, "Perhaps that they think they are in the right, or that they are pivotal to whatever they are trying to do... but that compared to us, they are of the least import."

Asuka, now thoroughly unsettled and confused, poured the zero drink into the cup with the three others. As soon as it reached the liquid, the contents turned a shimmering group of colors, as if a rainbow itself were mixed into the glass. The place where the drink touched the bartop glowed green. “Well... whatever it is Zero is doing, that’s pretty cool.”

Ahab rolled his eye and picked up another glass and placed it next to the middle “groom” glass. “I’d like ye to pour me one part **4** , one part **6** , and one part **9**. In the second glass, give me a cocktail of **1** , **3** , and **6**.” Upon seeing Asuka’s expression he added, “Captain’s orders, sailor!”

Asuka rolled her eyes. “Aye aye, Captain.” In the cup sitting in the indent, she poured from the 4, 6, and 9 bottles, then added the "zero" liquid. The drink settled into a drink that was a very light blue at the top, but the further down it was, the darker blue it got. At the very bottom, it appeared to be pitch black. Once Asuka made sure there was a green glow emanating from the place the cup met the bar, she poured him out another cocktail, this time including liquid from 1, 3, and 6. Oddly enough, the cocktail settled into the same blue drink as the other one.

_Weird._

Ahab, seemingly satisfied, picked up his drink. He swirled it a bit, smirked, then downed it all in one gulp.

“Hey, wait! You don’t even know what that is!”

“What it is,” Ahab said, putting his empty glass down on the bartop, “is good stuff. Strong.” He grinned and added, a noticeable flush to his furry cheeks, “Kinda like ye, me sea-farin’ friend. Or _hic_ perhaps somethin’ more, heh.”

_Wow, he’s actually drunk._

Ignoring Ahab, Ose picked up the **2** , **4** , and **6** bottles and poured them neatly into the final cup. The light underneath it glowed green, but the drink never seemed to settle. It was constantly moving as if pulled by some current within the glass. Golden flecks swam through the smokey liquid, like fireflies in the darkness. Much to Asuka’s surprise, Ose just looked around the room, not the least bit interested in what was going on inside his glass.

Nonplussed, Asuka joined him in scanning the room. At first, she didn’t notice anything. Everything was as it was, with the altar, decorations, and dessert table. Confused, she turned back to the drinks. Just as before, they were all glowing green. Ahab hiccuped and leaned his large back against the bar. He looked like he was nodding off.

“Captain, we’re a little busy right now. Now really isn’t the time to pass out.” Asuka said, shaking his shoulder gently.

Ahab’s eye opened lazily, focusing on the flower in Asuka’s hair. “Ah, I see.” He smirked, then stood up, staggering a little. “Where’d ye hide me pipe, lass? Not anywhere too _hic_ hard to find, I hope,” Ahab said, swaying on the spot, his pipe still in his mouth.

“Easy there, Captain. I hid your pipe somewhere on me, you’ll just have to find it-”

“Ahem.” Ose cleared his throat. “Your pipe is exactly where you left it, Captain. It’s still in your mouth.”

Ahab reached up and grabbed onto his pipe, then smirked. “Heh, whoops! Sorry, lass. What was that ‘bout it being on yer body? Ye weren’t tryin’ ta… nah…” He chuckled, leaning dangerously over.

Asuka held onto his shoulder, stabilizing him. “I’m innocent, Captain! I’m sure whatever you were thinking was just some subconscious desire-”

“Asuka,” Ose said, now looking exasperated, “now is neither the time nor the place. Please stop teasing him.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” He rubbed his temples then looked up once again. “Was that there before? Maybe me eyes just be playin’ tricks on me.”

Asuka followed his gaze up to the ceiling and noticed that, somehow, the white surface of it had vanished, leaving behind a vast mural stretching across the whole top of the room. It depicted the altar at the front, with flower petals frozen in place all across the picture. The place where the bride, groom, and minister would stand, however, were silhouettes. It was pretty obvious who the bride and groom were supposed to be, judging by the sheer size of the latter’s shadow. However, the minister was far taller than Ose.

“Huh.” Asuka walked over to the altar, where Ose was waiting. He was staring at the two of them as if waiting for them. Asuka looked over to Ahab, who was now eating a chocolate chip cookie from the dessert table. “Captain, I think you’re needed over here!” Ahab put the cookie in his mouth and started walking over to them. He looked like he was trying to hurry, but being drunk clearly wasn’t helping him out. Asuka chuckled but felt a little bad about it- like she was watching a cat run into the wall.

“Hey, Ose. Do you know if buffalo can eat chocolate?”

“No idea. Beastmen aren’t built the same as actual beasts, so... even if they can’t, it might not matter.” They watched him walk over to them, then Ose added, “That drink must have been pretty strong, I can’t imagine that Captain Ahab is much of a lightweight.”

Asuka tried her best to stifle her laugh as Ahab finally caught up to them. He looked at the two of them and smirked. “What’s got ye tickled, lass?”

“Nothing, Captain. Well, aside from this,” she said, then reached up and plucked the flower petal off the top of his head. She then ruffled the little extra fluff on the top of his head.

“That’s enough o’ that,” Ahab said, looking awkwardly to the side.

“Aha, sorry Captain.” Asuka laughed. “I’ve just always wanted to do that.”

Ose coughed, and the two of them looked toward him sheepishly. “As cute as you two are, I think we should finish this puzzle, don’t you?”

Asuka looked down at the three red X’s. “But Ose, it didn’t work for you last time. Besides, that third silhouette up there doesn’t look like you.”

“Doesn’t it?” Ose winked and held up his crown. There was a flash of bright light, and where Ose was standing was now a very tall, very suave looking leopard man. He smiled slyly at her then said, “Surprised?”

Ahab’s eye widened. “What happened? Is this yer ‘rule?’”

Asuka looked him up and down then exclaimed, “Woah! You look so cool now!”

Ose staggered back slightly in pretend shock. “I like to think I looked pretty cool before as well!” He smiled at the two of them, then walked back onto the spot where the minister would stand. As soon as it dipped down, the silhouette corresponding to that position filled in with the now-tall Ose, dressed in the traditional garb of a minister.

Asuka’s eyes lit up upon seeing this. “Ose, you’re so handsome!”

Ose laughed. “Now now, not right in front of your husband-to-be.” He then motioned to the X on the right of him. Asuka, now enthused, stepped down onto the X. She was careful not to lose her balance this time as she felt the ground beneath her move down. Once she had steadied herself, she looked up at the ceiling to see that the spot she was standing in was now filled in by herself in a wedding dress.

“If I might be so bold, you look rather fetching in a gown, Asuka.” Ose winked, then pointed at Ahab. He was staring unblinkingly at the picture.

A smile spread across her face, which was gradually getting redder and redder. “Captain, it’s your turn now.”

He jumped slightly then looked at Asuka. “Ah… ye’re right.” He gulped and walked up to the last X. Evidently he hadn’t been watching earlier, as he was surprised by the ground dipping down and lost his balance.

Asuka reached out and steadied him. “Easy there, Captain.”

“Thanks, la… Asuka.” He stood up properly, and Asuka released her hand. Ahab made a funny movement as if to grab her hand, but he held himself back. Instead, he looked up at the ceiling once again.

The mural was finally completed, finishing out with Ahab dressed in a tuxedo. Much to their astonishment, the mural had changed. Now, it showed Asuka and Ahab, the bride and the groom, holding hands. Asuka looked down and, meeting Ahab’s gaze, held out her hands. Hesitantly, he too reached out his hands and took hers in his own. Together, each looking just as embarrassed as the other, they looked up at the ceiling.

_It’s… beautiful…_

Pink flower petals propelled from some unknown source began to lazily float down from the ceiling. The effect of these petals dancing in the air mixed with the mural on the ceiling. The effect was, at least to Asuka, quite magical. Her face widened in a broad smile, and she could feel a tear welling up in the corner of her eye. Looking back down at Ahab, she could see that he also had a smile across his face. Then, to Asuka’s surprise, it started to fade. Ahab let go of Asuka’s hands, reached out, and grabbed something out of the air. From the looks of it, it was a couple pieces of paper stapled together. Looking closer, there was sheet music on it. It was titled Morphogenetic Sorrow.

_It’s that word again, “morphogenetic.”_

Ahab handed it to Ose, then sighed. Asuka looked at him, but he seemed to be thinking about something.

_Whatever he’s thinking about, it can’t be happy. What happened?_

Ose walked over to the keyboard and, seeing that they weren’t following, turned around. “Hey lovebirds, care to join me?” Asuka glanced at Ahab, but he still seemed to be preoccupied. Ose chuckled. “You know, the key to a relationship is communication. How about we have a little chat, just as soon as we find the exit?” The two of them walked over and he sat down, placing the music upright so he could read it. He played a note, then stopped. The sound that came out wasn’t that of an organ. Instead, it sounded like he had just played a key on a piano.

Ose’s eyebrows raised in fascination. “Well, that’s interesting. I guess something we did must have turned it into a piano."

Without another delay, he raised his hands to the keyboard and began to play. Transfixed, Asuka watched his hands move up and down the keys, playing a song that, true to its name, sounded full of sorrow. As the song went on, Asuka felt something nudging her.

“...Look,” Ahab whispered, then pointed to the sides of the room, right at the stained glass windows. As the music continued, the orange glow around the boy and girl seemed to move. To Asuka, it appeared to be a fire slowly dancing closer and closer to them. After a few minutes, Ose reached the end of the song and the music started to die away. With the final note, the shimmering of the stained glass faded back to its original state. Ose stood up and stretched.

Ose winked. “Ah, it’s a lot easier to play when I’m like this.”

Getting the image of the stained glass window out of her mind, Asuka asked, “What’s up with your appearance, anyway?”

He just laughed. “This is because of my sacred artifact, you see. One of its uses is to allow me to change my appearance.”

Asuka had the sneaking suspicion that he wasn’t telling the full truth, but she chose to let it slide. She heard the sound of something sliding and turned to see a door open up underneath the stained glass window with the girl in pink. She looked around for Ahab and saw that he was sitting in one of the chairs in front of the altar, smoking on his pipe. She headed over, Ose following close behind.

Ahab blew out smoke and straightened up. He was staring ahead at the altar.

Asuka sat down next to him. “Captain? What’s wrong?”

Ahab looked at Asuka and opened his mouth. “This whole thing. It be strange. At first, I just thought it’d be a normal ‘escape room’ like the others. This is… somethin’ far more than I’m used to.”

Ose pulled over a chair and sat down. “You mean how specific this room is, right?”

“Yeah.” He puffed out some smoke. “I don’t get why, though.”

Asuka read the expression on his face and said softly, “You have a guess though, don’t you?”

“Mm,” he grunted, then cleared his throat and looked up toward the mural on the ceiling, then back down toward the altar once again. “Aye, I have a guess. I think that ‘Zero’ brat did this specifically for me and ye, Asuka.” He coughed and looked down at his pipe, then added, “I’ll admit that it… wasn’t bad. Bein’ up with ye, like that… It’s just…” He paused, trying to piece together the right words. “Back on me boat, the night ye said ye watched me die, ye said ye loved me.” He was blushing remembering it, and Asuka felt her face grow hot. “I know ye’re just like that sometimes, but even so, I told ye that once ye’d matured, it could be a nice thing ta think about.” He scratched the back of his head then finished, “It feels like… Zero won’t allow that ta happen. That it’s either this or nothin'. That’s what me intuition is tellin’ me, anyway.”

Asuka put her hand on his arm. “Relax, Captain. I’m not going anywhere, ok? We’re going to escape here, then we’ll go and hunt down that sea monster. Then maybe…” She grinned at him. “Maybe one day I’ll get to see the real thing~!”

Ahab rolled his eye, but he grinned too. “By ‘real thing’ I hope ye mean weddin’.”

Asuka put on an innocent expression. “Of course! Whatever else could I mean?”

“You two are adorable.” Ose was watching the two of them with a slight smile on his face. “Though I am somewhat inclined to believe what the captain said. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this room is far too fitting for it to be a coincidence. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Zero has some sort of knowledge of the future.” He laughed, making direct eye contact with Asuka, then added, “Perhaps somewhat like this aforementioned date aboard his boat?”

The events in the nursery suddenly came back to Asuka’s mind. “You mean… the _Morphogenetic Field_ , then?”

Ose perked up. “So you’ve heard of it.”

“Alice told me about it back in the nursery after we found a really weird puzzle.” Asuka then spent the next 20 minutes explaining what Alice had told her about the morphogenetic field, stopping every now and then to answer questions to the best of her ability.

“So that’s why ye were rememberin’ those things from down the road.” Ahab closed his eye.

“You believe me?”

Ahab puffed out smoke. “Sure, why not? It ain't far off from what I guessed, anyway. In a weird way, it makes sense. Heh, I’ve been around ye long enough not to be too surprised by anythin’, lass.”

Ose thought for a moment then asked, “This ‘weird puzzle-’ What did it entail?”

Asuka explained the vending machine and how it only allowed for the three options they were originally given by Shuichi.

“I see. In that case, it really seems like this ‘Zero’ fellow knows about future events. If that is correct, then I must admit... I am a little worried.”

Asuka’s blood ran cold. “...you mean, ‘what plan does Zero have that would make something like this necessary,’ right?” She paused then muttered, “...Just like what the captain was saying.” Ose just nodded. They sat there, the fact that they were playing into Zero’s hands sinking in. Asuke forced herself to her feet, and put on the most confident face she could muster. “You know what? I still think we’ll be fine.”

Ahab shot smoke through his nose. “Do ye now? There’s a fine line between confidence and being an idiot, lass.”

“Hey now, hear me out. Aside from the whole ‘kidnapping’ and ‘strapping something that could kill you to your wrist’ thing, Zero has been surprisingly nice. Just look at the water dispenser in that room with the giant window! Or even this room, with the wedding! Zero did say something about meeting us later, right? When that happens, I’m going to convince them to stop this. Who knows! They might even be bluffing about the bracelet, or maybe this whole thing was just to get us married or... or something!”

Ose and Ahab just stared at her.

“Good grief.” Ahab shook his head and blew on his pipe.

“I’m sure that will be… interesting, if nothing else.” Ose stood up and held his crown up. In another flash of light, he looked like a kid once again. “We should get going. I imagine that the others are most likely waiting for us, considering how much time we’ve wasted. After you, Mr. and Mrs. Ahab.” He winked at them and walked toward the door underneath the girl in pink.

Ahab chased after him. “Ye better not call us that around everyone, brat.”

Asuka smiled and followed behind him.

_People always underestimate talking it out, I think. If it worked so many times before, it’d work now._

_Right?_

The door slid open and they filed through it. As soon as Asuka entered, the door closed behind her.

The three of them walked together down the deserted hallway toward the next door. For some reason, Asuka got the strong impression that this series of puzzles was nearing an end. As they continued on, the worries she had been building up since the very start kept stacking on top of each other. There was the dangerous nature of this game, the mysteries about where- or when they were, the knowledge that Zero had of future events and the “morphogenetic field” that kept cropping up, and the surprising benevolence that Zero had been showing them.

_So many questions, but so few answers._

She frowned and continued to walk, her mind racing.

_Zero planted that room where it was, specifically focusing on the three of us who would enter it. Every hint that Zero has thrown our way, it’s all suggesting the same thing, over and over again. Whatever Zero’s plan is, it’s all following how they want it to. Maybe we need to try something more spontaneous?_

They finally reached the end of the hallway and walked on through the sliding door. Asuka was granted a short respite in the scene before her. To put it simply, it was a rather spacious movie theater. There was a large blank screen at the front of the room, and a projector at the very back. There was a single row of nine seats, which added to the empty feel of the room. At the very bottom, down some stairs, were three more sliding doors. One was labeled with a **4,** the second with a **6,** and the final with an **8**. Looking down at her bracelet, Asuka saw that she now had the number 9. Underneath it was two dashes, showing that the time left until they had to leave wasn’t set at the moment. Shrugging, she walked down to the seats.

The seats all had numbers on them, as Asuka found out, corresponding to the numbers on their wrists. She wasn’t terribly surprised to find the other 6 waiting for them, considering the amount of time they took up in the wedding hall. Upon seeing Asuka, Shuichi stood up.

“Excellent, you’re here! Sit down, sit down. In your own seat, mind you.” He then gestured to the seats behind him. From 1 to 9 they were occupied by no one, Melusine, Shuichi, Tadatomo, Shiro, Nyarlathotep, Alice, and then the last two seats were empty. Asuka took her seat and watched as Ahab and Ose sat down at seats 1 and 8 respectively. She deflated a little when seeing that Ahab was on the exact opposite side.

A slight smile grew on Ose’s face. “You’ll have plenty of time to discuss your honeymoon once this is all said and done.” He winked at her, then looked down at his bracelet.

_When this is all done, huh? I wonder…_

Lost in the idea she was brewing up, she almost didn’t notice the lights dimming and the light of the projector shining on the screen before them. They expected to see Zero once again but, to their surprise, there was an overhead shot of Tokyo itself. Zero’s distorted voice served as narration, with subtitles scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

“In a not too distant past, it was determined that the worlds beyond our own would collide, resulting in a bridge of myths and legends onto Earth.”

_Beams of light shot up, one by one, all over Tokyo._

“As a result of this clash, mystical beings appeared before the unknowing residents. Fearful of what they could not, or would not understand, they blocked off Tokyo- the source of all these mysterious beings.”

_Walls grew from the ground, surrounding the entire city. Everything beyond the wall was then blacked out so that only that which was in Tokyo itself was visible._

“Little did they know, these powers were far more deadly than they could have possibly imagined, and the beings behind them would make themselves known.”

_The ground began to shake, and cracks became visible across the ground. Lightning struck the ground, rain poured from the heavens, and fires sprang up all across Tokyo. In a matter of minutes, they watched as their city turned to nothing but ash._

“The devastation would continue on, these greater beings fighting amongst each other until their battlefield was naught but an empty wasteland.”

_The walls around the barren ground of Tokyo collapsed, and the rest of the world came into focus once again. The ground was charred black, the seas were dry, and there wasn’t a speck of life anywhere._

“Only the actions of one lonesome individual, the combination of 23 souls and more, has the potential to stop this destruction. Without them, this world and countless others are doomed to extinction.”

The picture faded away and the lights turned back on. They sat there in a stunned silence. Asuka looked down the rows and saw that everyone was looking at her. Some were shocked, some looked almost frightened. The exceptions to this were Alice and Nyarl. Alice had an expression akin to pity reflected in her eyes, while Nyarl didn’t seem to be even remotely surprised. Asuka felt unnerved and looked down at her bracelet. Her eyes widened in shock and she shot up.

“Your bracelets! Look at the time!”

They all looked down and, upon realizing what she was talking about, shot up as well. There were 5 minutes left until they had to continue on. They sprinted down to the doors, which slid open as they got near.

Asuka turned to the rest of them. “Listen. I don’t know what that video meant, but we’ll have to talk about it later. Melusine, Tadatomo, you’re with me. We’re going to go through door number 6. Captain, take Shiro and Alice with you through door 4. Shuichi, Ose, and Nyarl, you’re going through door 8. You got all that?”

Shiro looked shocked. “Woah, that was fast. Where’d that come from?”

Asuka couldn’t find the words. She had been thinking about this since she saw the doors, trying to think of some way to make an “unpredictable” action, something that would give her a small victory over Zero. She just shrugged and steeled herself.

“Alright, Asuka. I trust you.” He gulped and looked down at his bracelet. Two minutes left. “Are you all ready?”

Ahab smirked. “Heh. Maybe ye’re not a brat, after all, lass.” He then motioned to Shiro and Alice, and they walked through the number 4 door. The rest followed suit, Asuka’s group going through the number 6 door, and Shuichi’s group going through door 8. Then the doors closed, and their next trial began once again. 


	5. Wavering Resolve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crispy.

They headed down a sloped hallway, the sound of their footsteps echoing through the corridor. Asuka was could feel her tension slowly rising, and she didn’t say a word as they walked toward the door that would lead them to that final puzzle.

_Final?_

Asuka stopped herself.

_How would I know that this is the final puzzle? I’m being ridiculous._

Tadatomo passed her, looking nervous. He glanced at Melusine, who stopped as well before Asuka.

“Miss Asuka, are you alright? You appear to be quite pale.”

Asuka looked at Melusine and tried her best to calm down. “I’m sorry, Melusine, Tadatomo. I’m alright. Let’s keep on going, alright?” She set off again, and they followed after her.

As they continued further on, Tadatomo walked alongside Asuka. “If you’ll pardon my question, milord, may I ask why you chose us to accompany you?”

“Obviously it’s because I want Melusine to crush me with her thighs, you see,” Asuka chortled.

“As… flattered… as I am, I believe there’s more to it than that,” Melusine said.

Asuka sighed. “To tell you the truth, I wanted to try and do something... spontaneous.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” Asuka sighed, “Ever since I woke up, it’s felt like Zero is always several steps ahead. There’ve been puzzles that correspond to the options we picked. Heck, even the last escape room I went through was even specifically dedicated to me and Captain Ahab.”

“What sort of room was it? Perhaps some sort of test of physical strength? A navigation room?”

“Well… That’s not important right now. Besides, if the captain knew that I had blabbed about it, I’d be swabbing the deck for a month.”

Tadatomo looked confused, but he dropped the question.

“Anyway, I was hoping that Zero wouldn’t be predicting me to decide on the spot what rooms we were going through, or that I’d choose to go with you two over people who, I’m sorry to say so bluntly, I know better.” Asuka winced slightly, hearing her own tactlessness.

Melusine nodded. “Don’t worry, I understand. If I were in Zero’s position, I would assume that you would choose to go with Captain Ahab or Shiro. Both of them seem rather close to you. If you wanted to defy Zero’s expectations, I think that may have been for the best. However…”

“However…?”

The light reflected off of Melusine’s glasses. “Perhaps your spontaneous behavior was exactly what Zero wanted.”

Asuka had been having these same thoughts, but hearing them aloud made it feel that much worse. They walked on ahead and finally reached the door, which slid open. Asuka felt her legs go weak and she had to force herself to keep standing. Rather than opening up into another room, there were instead three different hallways, each leading to a different door. On the far left it had a **4,** on the far right it had a **2,** and directly in the middle was the number **9.**  The numbers on each of their bracelets.

Tadatomo looked worriedly toward Asuka. “I know this is obvious, but it looks like the dragon girl was right.”

“Yeah… I was afraid of that.” Asuka closed her eyes and calmed herself down.

_Even if things are going according to Zero’s plan, it’s not over yet. I just have to remember that._

Asuka sighed and loosened up, then smiled at the other two. “Alright, whatever this is, we’ll get through it. You two with me?”

“Of course, Miss Asuka.”

“Leave it to me, my liege.”

“Then let’s get going!” The three of them split ways, each traveling down the aisles respective to their bracelet number. Tadatomo went down the left, Asuka down the middle, and Melusine headed to the right. As she neared the door, it opened up into a dark room. Steeling herself, she walked forward into the darkness and the door closed behind her.

Immediately, lights turned on and bathed the room in light. Before her was a moderately sized rectangular room, far longer than it was wide or tall. The ground was made from smooth stone, and the ceiling appeared the same. The walls on either side of her, however, were solid metal. The wall on her right had a door close to the entrance Asuka had come through. Over in the opposite corner of the room, on the far side of the left wall, there was another door. Both doors were identical, having a single handle and a square window cut out of the metal and covered by metal bars. The door must have been locked since the handle wouldn’t even turn. The gaps weren’t large enough for her to fit her hand through, but perhaps something else could fit, should she find anything. She heard the sounds of two sliding doors open and saw from the door on the right that Tadatomo had walked into the room beside her.

“Hey, Tadatomo! Over here!”

Tadatomo looked around and, spotting her face by the door, hurried over to it.

“My liege, is everything alright on your side?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

She heard a voice from the other door. “Madame Asuka?”

Asuka motioned to Tadatomo to hold on a minute, then walked over to the other door. As she expected, Melusine was waiting there, looking up and down the room Asuka was in, at least to the extent that she could.

“Hey, Melusine! I guess being split up is a part of this puzzle, huh?”

“It would appear that way, yes.”

Asuka looked around at her surroundings. Across the back wall, right next to the door leading to the room with Melusine, were large square metal panels. While it was a 3x3 grid, only 8 slots were occupied. On each panel, there was a deep indent in a particular shape. Above each indent was a screen, but every one of them was blank. Curious, Asuka tried to move one of the panels into the empty slot, and it slid seamlessly into place.

_So this is like a slide puzzle, then?_

On the top row, there was a circle, a rectangle, and a triangle. On the second row, there was a star, a pentagon, and a semicircle. On the final row, there was just a diamond shape and a hollowed out gear. The third place for a panel was, as she noticed earlier, absent. There was just a single other thing in the room. At the very corner of the room, there was a table with a glass top held down by screws. Underneath the glass top was what appeared to be a star.

“Tadatomo, can you hear me?” Asuka said in front of Melusine’s door. She needed to talk to them at the same time.

“Loud and clear, sire.”

“Alright, at the back of this room I’m in there’s some sort of sliding puzzle. Melusine, you could probably see part of it from the window.”

“I can see part of it, I believe.”

“Alright. At the moment I can’t really see anything that gives me a hint at what goes where, and the only one of these shapes I can see is underneath some glass table held down by screws. If any of you have something that could help with this in your rooms, let me know alright?”

“As you wish,” the two said together, then went searching around their respective rooms. In the meantime, Asuka looked through the windows into the other two’s rooms.

Although the window didn’t provide that much in the way of vision, Asuka could make out a couple of lockers on the far side of the room. From the looks of the combinations, they had a 3 digit lock that could be controlled by little knobs underneath the place values. However, it was too far away for her to make out what the combinations consisted of. There was a light on both of the lockers, the first one bearing a red light while the second had a green light.

“Hey, Melusine, those lockers over there. Is the one on the right open?”

Asuka saw Melusine walk out from beyond her field of vision toward the lockers. She grabbed the handle of the locker with the green light on it and swung it open.

“That is the case, yes.” She then tried the one on the left, and it was locked. “The green light must indicate that it is unlocked, while the red signifies the opposite.” She then inspected the contents of the unlocked locker. It didn’t take long for her to withdraw holding a single object in her hand. She then looked at the locker combination and muttered something.

She walked over to Asuka and inspected something right around the window.

“What’d you find, Melu?”

“Just this, I’m afraid.” She reached through the bars and handed her what appeared to be the top of a screwdriver. “Although, there was something important to note about the locker itself. The combination, rather than a series of numbers, consisted of three shapes- a triangle, a pentagon, and a circle, in that order.”

“Just like on these panels then.” Asuka listed off the name of each shape aloud.

Melusine nodded. “Precisely. There is one more thing, though.”

“Hm?”

Melusine looked behind Asuka, then corrected herself. “Two things, now that I come to think of it. The first is that the screwdriver head I just gave you looks like it will only open up screws of a very specific type. At the very least, they won’t open up the screws keeping this grate on this window.”

Asuka looked down at the screwdriver head. It appeared as if it were specifically designed for a screw head that had a 5 point star built into the head. If her memory served her correctly, the screws that held the glass in place on that table were for a simple flathead screwdriver.

“The second thing is about the handle on that door over there.” She pointed over to Tadatomo’s door. The handle was a weird shade of green, bright against the otherwise dull metal of the door. Aside from that, it didn’t seem to be that odd.

“What about it?”

“I can’t tell if there is a handle on your side of this door, nor if there is a handle on Tadatomo’s side of that door. However, there is not one on this side of this door.”

Asuka, now curious, reached down and fiddled with the doorknob. Unlike the one on Tadatomo’s door, it became loose and fell off into Asuka’s hand. She held it up, and Melusine looked pleased.

“Well, hopefully, that is something we needed to do, right?”

“Heh, yeah. Good job, Melusine. Is there anything else in your room that might help?”

“Aside from these lockers, there is a small display on the wall here. The screen is dark, so it must not be activated at the moment. It looks like there is a panel underneath it, like a touchscreen, but touching it does nothing.” She stepped away from the door and clasped her hands together. “I believe that is all I can help you with, I’m afraid.”

“One last thing- those screws, what do you think you will need to remove them?”

Melusine looked closer at the screws holding the bars in place. “This is going to sound odd, but I think it has to be a gear like on one of the panels on your end.”

Asuka laughed. “At this point, I don’t think things could get any weirder. Thanks, Melusine.” Melusine nodded and stepped over out of sight. Asuka looked down at the screwdriver rod and the handle that had come off of Melusine’s door. There was a circular knob at the bottom of the rod, and the handle she found had a square slot. Clearly, these two couldn’t fit together. She walked back over to Tadatomo’s door and tried the handle. It wouldn’t budge.

“Hey, Tadatomo?”

Tadatomo appeared, carrying something underhand.

“What is it, my liege?”

“Is there a handle on your side of this door?”

He stooped down and inspected, presumably, the spot where the handle should have been. The next moment, he stood back up and shook his head.

“There is not, but there is a bizarrely shaped screw. It looks as if a five-pointed star should unscrew it.”

“Oh, perfect! I have that here, though I don’t have a handle for it.”

“You are… full of surprises.” Tadatomo looked around the room, his eyes settling on something out of sight. He walked out of sight, then returned clutching a small metal box. He held it up to Asuka. It had an electronic display on it bearing a 3x3 square, not unlike the large one in Asuka’s room. Tadatomo lowered it, tapped on one of the squares, and held it up again. There was now a number 1 in one of the boxes.

“Do you have any idea what this means, my liege?”

Asuka thought for a moment, then shook her head. “No, sorry. Maybe Melusine would know.”

“Know what?” Melusine asked from the other door. Apparently, she had tuned in.

“There’s this box that has a 3 by 3 grid on it, it has numbers when you tap the individual squares. I’m pretty sure it’s a puzzle.”

“...I think your hunch is correct, Miss Asuka. Although, if neither of you knows what it is right now, you should try and find some way to get it over to me. I might know what to do with it.”

“Alright then,” Asuka said, then turned back to Tadatomo. “So, what was that other thing you were holding earlier?”

“Ah, right.” He reached down and picked something up off the ground, then held it up for Asuka to see. It was a metal block and, from the looks of it, it would likely fit right into one of the slots on the sliding panels in Asuka’s room. It was also much too large to fit through the bars in their current state.

“I see. What type of screw is holding those bars in place?”

“They have little plusses on them. Phillips head, I think they’re called.”

“Hrm.” Asuka paced a little bit around the door, thinking. “Is there anything else in your room?”

She heard Tadatomo shuffle off somewhere, then heard his voice. “There’s a, uh, something over here.”

“What sort of ‘something’ are you talking about?”

“It looks like an arcade game, one of those things where you stop the light at the right time and get a bunch of tickets.” Asuka heard a click and loud carnival song started to play. She heard something fall on the floor, presumably Tadatomo himself. Over the din of music she could make out Tadatomo saying something about “always rigged” and “never win.” She heard another click and the music stopped. A second later, she heard a cool female voice yell out, “Jackpot!”

She heard something clunk to the ground, the shift that told her that Tadatomo had picked whatever it was up, and then he appeared again before her. He was grinning.

“First try! Did you see me, my liege!?”

Asuka, who hadn’t seen any of it, replied, “Of course! Good job, Tadatomo.”

Tadatomo’s grin grew wider and he held out the things he had picked up. In one hand he held a handle, in the next he was holding a paper. “The paper was surrounding the handle, you see.” He stuck both of them through the bars.

To Asuka’s delight, she saw that the handle was perfect for the rod with the star on the end. She attached the two, the rod settling into the handle with a click, then handed the screwdriver back to Tadatomo.

“That should let you remove the screw on your door, I think.” Then, hearing the sound of Tadatomo trying to use the screwdriver, she looked at the paper he had given her. On it was a couple of math equations, though there were shapes instead of numbers. Beneath those were the numbers **438** and **276**. The equations didn’t make a whole lot of sense to Asuka.

_Star + square = Diamond, Semicircle + Semicircle = Gear square. Heh, it kinda reminds me of those stupid 2 + 2 = fish things. I wonder if Melusine knows what’s going on here?_

Tadatomo popped up in the window again, holding the screw aloft. Asuka reached out and grabbed the handle, and it came off effortlessly. This time, the handle looked fit for a rod with a triangular base.

“Thank you, Tadatomo.” Asuka turned around as Tadatomo dipped out of sight. Curious about the sheet of paper, she headed back over to Melusine. She must have not had anything to do, as she was waiting for Asuka at the door. Asuka reached up and handed the paper to her. Melusine looked up and down the paper and nodded.

“Interesting, if a bit cliché. Those 8 symbols over there must correlate to a number between 1 and 9, if my suspicions are correct. These two numbers at the bottom are very likely the combinations to these.” She gestured behind her toward the lockers. “With that in mind, we can assume a few things. First, the gear must stand for the number 1.”

“How did you figure that one out?”

“Assuming the two symbols next to each other don’t mean to multiply, it should mean that the gear is the tens value, while the square is the one's value. It is not possible for any number, one through nine, to go into the twenties by adding it to itself. Therefore, the gear must be the number 1.”

“What if it does mean to multiply?”

“I highly doubt it. I think Zero would be more… finicky when it comes to something like that. In any case, the square cannot be an odd number, as any whole number times 2 is going to still be even.”

Asuka nodded. “What else?”

“Well, there are the two numbers down here. Assuming that this is correct, then the triangle, pentagon, and circle are either 4, 3, and 8, or 2, 7, and 6 respectively. If we assume the latter is true, it would mean that the square has to be either 4 or 8, meaning that the semicircle would have to be either 7 or 9. Additionally, if the square were 8, the star would have to be 1. This would be impossible, as it conflicts with the value of the gear. If it were 4, then the star has to be 5 or 3. If it were 3 then the diamond would be 7, which would conflict with the pentagon. On the other hand, if it were 5 then the semicircle would have to be 7, which still conflicts with the pentagon.”

Asuka listened to her with wide-eyed fascination. “Wow Melusine, you’re really smart!”

Melusine blushed and tucked some of her hair back behind her ear. “Thank you, Madam Asuka. You’re too kind.” She coughed and looked back down at the paper, a slight smile on her face. “If we assume that the first is true, however, then the square has to be either 2 or 6. This puts the semicircle at either 6 or 8, respective to the square. In this case, the star has to be 2 for the square being 6, which can’t be the case because then the resulting diamond, 8,  would clash with the semicircle. This means that the square has to be 2, and the semicircle has to be 6. If the square is 2, then the star has to be, knowing what we know now,” she looked down at the paper and concluded, “5 or 7.”

Asuka waited for her to denounce one of them, but she didn’t. “After all of that we still have two numbers left?”

“Yes, I’m afraid. The only numbers left unaccounted as of now are 5, 7, and 9. Coincidentally, those are also the numbers that could potentially be involved in the second equation. 2 + 5 = 7, and 2 + 7 = 9. Although, It will be very easy to check the right answer.”

“You mean by opening the second locker, right?”

“Exactly. We now know that,” she pulled a pen out from somewhere and wrote on the back of the paper as she continued, “the gear is **1** , the square is **2** , the pentagon is **3** , the triangle is **4** , **5** is unknown, the semicircle is **6** , **7** is unknown, **8** is the circle, and **9** is unknown.” She finished writing and walked over to the locker. She messed with the dials so that the first shape was a square and the third was a semicircle. “If the middle shape is a star, then the diamond is 9. If the middle shape is a diamond, then the star is 5.” She fiddled with the middle dial until the locker opened with a quiet click. Melusine turned to Asuka, a smile lighting up her face. She knelt down and scribbled on the piece of paper, then handed it back to Asuka while saying, “The star is a 7, and the diamond a 9.”

Asuka held the sheet of paper and looked at Melusine in awe. Melusine flushed and walked back to the locker to get the contents. She stooped down and grabbed a few things out of it, then shut the locker. She headed over to Asuka and showed her what she had found. In her hands she was holding a screwdriver top, its base perfectly suited for the handle Asuka already had. The head of it looked like it would remove the plus headed screws that Tadatomo had described earlier. Melusine passed it to Asuka, who took it with thanks, then popped the two parts together to form the whole screwdriver. Melusine then handed her the other thing in her hands, a small black sd card.

Melusine sighed. “Hopefully there is something on one of you two’s ends that will accept that. I didn’t find anything that would take it over here, regrettably.”

“Alright, thanks!” Melusine nodded and walked off to the side once again. Asuka headed back over to Tadatomo’s door. He appeared after a moment, still holding that box he had shown Asuka before. Asuka passed the screwdriver through the bars to Tadatomo, who grabbed it.

“This fits perfectly with the screws. Well done, my liege.” Tadatomo grinned and started to unscrew the bars on the window.

“Ah, don’t mention it. It was all Melusine, anyways.”

“She is very bright. Someone to be careful of.”

“Oh, she’s great. When we get out of here we should all go somewhere together!”

“If you say so.” With a small clink, the screws holding the bars to the door fell off one by one until the whole thing came crashing down, causing Tadatomo to jump out of sight with a yelp.

“You ok in there?” Asuka called into the room. Tadatomo stepped back up to the door, looking abashed. He handed the box through the newly opened gap, then reached down and picked up that rectangular block he was carrying earlier and handed that to her as well.

“I trust that this will suffice?” Tadatomo said, grinning.

Asuka smiled at him and handed him the SD card that that Melusine had given her. “Will this fit in anywhere in your room? I don’t see anything in here that I could put that in.”

Tadatomo looked down at the chip that he now held in his hand, then walked off somewhere. There was a soft click from somewhere outside her sight, and she heard Melusine gasp. Tadatomo hurried back to the doors, a grin still plastered on his face.

“Anything else, my liege?”

“I think that’s all. Thank you, Tadatomo.” Asuka then walked back over to the other door to see why Melusine had gasped.

_At some point, I’m going to be able to do something in this room other than be a messenger, probably._

“Melusine, are you alright?”

Melusine called over from somewhere along the wall separating the two of them. “I am alright, thank you. The monitor in here turned on. I suppose you found somewhere to plug that card into?”

“That we did! Well, Tadatomo did. Anyway, What’s up with it?”

“I’m afraid I have no idea, in full honesty. The monitor did turn on, but it is still largely empty. The only thing that it says is ‘ready.’” There was a small pause, then she added, “It appears that the touch screen now has 9 buttons on it, each labeled 1 through 9. Unfortunately, they are all grayed out. There has to be some sort of condition before they unlock.”

“Alright, I’ll see what I can do on my end then. Before that though, could you take a look at this?” Asuka held up the metal box Tadatomo had given her that had the display on it. A small smile grew on Melusine’s face. “I guess you know what this means?”

Melusine reached out and touched the top left square, turning it into a 1. She gave a small laugh. “Yes, I have a pretty good idea. I think this, and that sliding puzzle you mentioned over there, are ‘magic squares.’” Seeing Asuka’s vacant expression, she continued. “Magic squares are when you make a grid of different numbers and every row and column add up to the same number. Here, let me see.”

Asuka held up the box to the door so that Melusine could reach the screen herself. She watched as Melusine tapped on each of the boxes rhythmically, moving on when she deemed it ready. After roughly a minute of her tapping, she retracted her finger. A second later, there was a beep from the box and Asuka felt something slide inside the box. Pulling it away, she saw that Melusine had filled up the grid.

**4 9 2**

**3 5 7**

**8 1 6**

“As you can see, each column and row add up to 15. If we assume that this is a hint that the sliding puzzle on your side is the same, then we would try to get the shapes that match the numbers into their respective positions, with the exception of 5.”

Asuka looked back at the sliding puzzle. “There isn’t a shape for 5, so we’d just make sure that the empty slot is in the middle. Right?”

“I believe so, yes.”

“Alright.” Asuka looked down at the box and saw that the display now had a green button on it that said “unlocked.” She pressed the button and the top of it opened up. Inside the box was a single screwdriver already put together with the proper handle. The head of it was a gear, perfect for removing the screws holding the bars in place on Melusine’s door. She handed it to her through the bars, then grabbed the last remaining thing inside the box as Melusine removed the aforementioned bars. Cradled in her hand was a smooth ball. It was as clear as glass, but felt like a sturdy plastic. Confused, she tossed it from hand to hand. It wasn’t terribly heavy, but it did have some decent heft to it.

Putting it aside, Asuka picked up the metal rectangle that Tadatomo gave her earlier. As much as she knew she had to do this sliding puzzle, she felt like she should wait till the end or, at the very least, until she had no choice. Shrugging, she plugged the metal box into place in the panel at the very top. It fit perfectly. Immediately, the screen lit up with a picture of a stone tablet.

_Is that… Shuichi’s sacred artifact?_

It matched the appearance down to a T, from what Asuka had seen of it.

_Is this some other sort of clue? I’m getting tired with all these “hints.”_

“Madam Asuka?”

Asuka heard Melusine call her name from the other room and walked over to the door once again.

“What is it, Melu?”

“The number 4 lit up on the touchpad. Should I press it?”

“Go ahead! With any luck, we’re almost done.” Asuka kept tossing the ball around as Melusine walked back over to the computer. There was a loud beeping noise, and then the rooms were filled with the whirr of machinery. The ground around her started shaking and Asuka watched as four columns moved up. They stopped rising at approximately a meter off the floor, and Asuka stood there, transfixed, as the inside of the pillars molded into large funnels, leading to an opening that looked about as wide around as the ball Asuka was holding in her hand. Each pillar bore a different color. One was red, the second was blue, third was green, and the last one was yellow. She heard a noise from above her and saw that a pipe was now jutting out of the ceiling, also as round as the ball.

Tadatomo appeared at the door. “My liege, do you have a minute?”

Asuka snapped her gaze away from the funnels. “Er, yeah. What’s up?”

“Some sort of projector showed up, it’s shining a question on the wall.”

“What does it say?”

Tadatomo looked off to the side. Assuming that was where the question was, there wasn’t any way that Asuka could read it herself from her limited field of view.

“What is the name of Shuichi’s online username?”

“That’s the question?”

“Er, yes. Do you know the answer?”

“I think so.” Asuka walked back over to Melusine, her feet tired from going back and forth so many times. Before she could say a word, Melusine called from, presumably, over by the monitor.

“You found a question, correct? There are 4 answers here, so it must be multiple choice. The answers are as follows. Green: Abel, Blue: Cain, Red: Gabriel, Yellow: Duo.”

“Ok, thanks Melu.”

“The pleasure is all mine.”

_Classic Melusine, so proper even when in this sort of situation._

Asuka headed back over to the funnels.

_Let’s see… If I remember correctly, Shiro mentioned that he knew Shuichi as “Cain” back when they communicated with each other online. Jeez, that was ages ago…_

She took a look at the ball she was holding and placed it into the blue funnel, where it fell down into the hole, out of sight. A second later it fell back down out of the ceiling pipe where Asuka was waiting to catch it. There was a dinging noise, and a light glowed green on the panel with Shuichi’s sacred artifact on it. There was a loud thumping noise and a yelp from Tadatomo’s room. A few seconds later, Tadatomo stuck a metal cylinder through the window on his door, where Asuka grabbed it. She then took it over to the panels and inserted it to the left of Shuichi’s. The screen glowed with a set of blue wings, just like the ones Asuka had seen on Melusine’s back before.

_...I don’t think I should ask Melusine about this._

She heard Tadatomo call out from his room, “Who is Melusine’s rival from the Ikebukuro guild?”

From Melusine came, “Green: Macan, Blue: Horkeukamui, Red: Claude, and Yellow…” There was a small pause as if she were composing herself. “...Mr. Cool Cat Snazzy Claws.”

Asuka tried to contain herself, then broke down laughing. “Please tell me that’s what it actually says!”

Melusine appeared at the door. She looked like she was desperately trying to suppress a laugh. “Yes, It… does say that. ‘Mr. Cool Cat Snazzy Claws.’”

Tadatomo came up to the window to see what all the commotion was about. “Are you ok, my liege?”

Asuka wiped away a tear and grinned at him. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll have to make sure to call him that next time I see him.” She then tossed the ball down the yellow funnel. Just like before, the light on Melusine’s panel glowed green and the ball returned once more. This time the thump came from Melusine’s room. There was a light smile on her face as she handed her a perfect cube, then walked back to the monitor.

_This must fit in the diamond panel._

Asuka slid it into the bottom left panel and it lit up with a scroll.

_This must be Tadatomo’s sacred artifact._

Tadatomo coughed then relayed the question. “What does the ‘vengeful ninja’ prize above all else?”

Melusine called out from the other room. “Green: Loyalty Red: Cash-”

“Say no more, Melusine!” Asuka grabbed the orb and dropped it into the green slot. She got a smug grin on her face as the light lit up on Tadatomo’s panel, and another thunk came from his room. She retrieved the ball once again and headed over to his door where he was waiting with a large gear. She took it and, once again, plugged it in. This time it was at the very bottom middle. The display showed a book, odd and distorted.

_That’s Shiro’s book!_

“An exception occurs because of the clash of how many rules?”

Asuka scoffed. She’d been in that position too many times to get this one wrong. “Melusine, which color is 2?”

“Red.”

Asuka dropped the ball into the red one and waited, catching the ball as it fell, Shiro’s light now glowing green. Melusine handed her the next piece- a triangular prism. She plugged it into the top right, which showed a stuffed rabbit. No doubt, this was Alice’s question. Asuka waited for Tadatomo to read out the question.

“Have any two people had the same role and rule as of yet?”

“Blue for yes, red for no.”

She dropped it into the red one, and Tadatomo gave her a cylinder split down the middle- the semicircle. She plugged it in to reveal a crown on the display.

_Ose, I remember that from the wedding room. I hope he’s ok._

“What is the concept involved with so many... oddities?”

Asuka, who felt like she was on a roll, deflated a little. “Well, that’s vague.”

Melusine called, “Green: exceptions, blue: digital root, red: Morphogenetic Field, and yellow: Nonary game.”

Asuka nodded. As much as exceptions or digital roots came up, nothing involving them was nearly as odd as the things involving the Morphogenetic Field. Asuka rubbed her eyes as she dropped the ball into the red pillar. Just as she suspected, the light shone green.

_Get yourself together, Asuka._

Tadatomo handed her the pentagon, which she plugged into the middle panel. It showed Ahab’s ship, then zoomed in on an individual harpoon, just like the one he had been carrying around this entire time.

Tadatomo called from his room, “How many bracelets are needed to open up a door?”

Melusine returned, “I believe that is two people, which would be the yellow option.”

Asuka did as she said and dropped the ball into the yellow pillar. This time, instead of dropping something in some other room, a final screwdriver fell down with the ball. The screwdriver had a flat head, perfect for the screws holding down that glass on the table. Without a moment’s delay, Asuka did just that- unscrewing each screw holding the glass in place. Once the deed was done, she picked up the star piece and fit it into the last remaining slot.

“Has there been any permanent destruction caused by exceptions?”

Asuka scoffed. “Of course not. We’d know about something like that.”

Melusine called over, “In that case, ‘no’ would be the green option.”

Asuka tossed the orb down the green pillar and the last light came on with a blink. The orb came back once again. She sighed.

_Now I have to finish this sliding puzzle, I guess._

She pulled out the piece of paper that Melusine had written on, and drew the shapes into the positions they needed to be into in order to match the magic square Melusine had solved earlier.

_This might take a little while._

Asuka began sliding the panels around, trying to match them up to the chart on the paper Melusine had given her. As she did this, Melusine appeared at the door. If Asuka had to guess, Tadatomo was probably watching her through his door as well. She felt nervous with their eyes on her, so she broke the ice.

“So… those were some weird questions, huh?” Asuka gave a nervous laugh while sliding panels up, down, left, and right.

Tadatomo growled. “It’s unsettling, to be sure. Some of the questions seemed like simple trivia, but then others…” He trailed off.

Melusine continued to watch Asuka slide the panels around. “The exception ones, right? Personally, I am curious about whatever that ‘Morphogenetic Field’ answer meant.”

“Oh, I could answer that.” Asuka then added, “It might be a little complex though.” She glanced at Melusine, who was waiting attentively. “Alice explained it to me earlier, I’ll try and give the short version.” She paused, collecting her thoughts while still moving around the panels. “From what I’ve been told, the ‘Morphogenetic Field’ is some kind of information-storing field. It’s separate from the flow of time, and you can ‘tap’ into it in order to transmit or receive information. Alice said that the app itself is built with some sort of special connection to the Morphogenetic Field, and that is a large part in how sacred artifacts work.”

“Hold on,” Tadatomo said from behind Asuka. “You mean this field thing can send information from the future to, say, now?”

Asuka nodded, sliding a panel down. “Exactly. There’s also this thing where you can ‘shift’ into other timelines, apparently. Alice thinks that Zero is probably using this in order to get what they want.”

Melusine nodded. “Madam Asuka, what do you think?”

“Huh?”

“What do you think about this field? Do you think it is real?”

Asuka stared at her reflection in one of the panels. “...I do, I think. It does explain certain things, like how Zero knew who would go in which path. Or perhaps,” She added bitterly, “which paths are the ones that need to happen to get what they want.”

“My liege? Are you feeling yourself?” Tadatomo said, worry evident in his voice.

Melusine looked right at Asuka, who was now moving a panel to the left. “Tadatomo is right. Ever since we joined up together, you’ve been very tense. I almost miss your… unique humor. You’ve hardly flirted with anyone since we got here.”

“Hey, I can be serious sometimes,” Asuka voice cracked as she answered. “It’s just… everything has been going according to how Zero lays things out. If things go right along with their plan…” She could feel emotion welling up inside of her. “The last puzzle room I went through seemed like a massive hint that, whatever Zero’s plan is, it would have a... a very high cost.” She thought back to the wedding room, and Ahab’s dark premonition that that was their “last chance.” She wiped away the wetness forming in the corner of her eye and kept working on the puzzle.

_I won’t allow… whatever this is… to work. I have to stop Zero._

The two of them must have noticed her reaction, seeing how they didn’t continue the subject, and Asuka was grateful to them for it. She continued to work in silence.

“Madam Asuka, do you mind if I ask one more thing?” Melusine asked.

“Not at all, go ahead.”

“I know exceptions can be removed through the rule hierarchy method. Are there any other ways to dispel them?”

Asuka racked her brain, trying to remember everything Toji, Alice, and Shuichi had said about exceptions. “I think the only way to get rid of an exception so that all the destruction is reversed is to do the hierarchy method.”

Tadatomo laughed nervously. “Is that the only way to get rid of them?”

Asuka frowned. “Well, no. If I remember correctly... if both parties involved with the exception die then their rules wouldn’t be a problem anymore, so the exceptions would vanish when the app is closed. However, that means that their deaths and any destruction that it caused would be permanent.”

“That is… a little scary.”

Asuka sighed. “That, it is.”

With a click, the panel that she slid to the right stuck. Each of the displays glowed green and there was a beep from Melusine’s room.

“The last button is unlocked. Well done, Miss Asuka.”

She clicked it, and two of the pillars sank back into the ground, leaving just the red and the blue one.

Tadatomo’s voice rang out from his side. “...Are you ready?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, my liege. I should have clarified. That was the question. ‘Are you ready?’”

Asuka held the ball in her hand.

_Ready for what?_

Melusine walked over to the door and calmly said, “Red is for ‘yes.’ Blue, ‘no.’”

“What? Is this a trick question?” Asuka looked down at the ball, then looked at Melusine. She just shook her head as if to say _I don’t know._

Melusine cleared her throat. “I will say this. Whatever your answer may be, please pick the truth. Alright, Madam Asuka?”

Asuka gulped, then nodded.

_Am I ready?_

She thought back to everyone she had met since that night in the park, ever since the day she had saved Ryota- and he had saved her. She thought back to all her friends, and especially those that she was trapped in here with. Ahab’s warning came to mind once again.

_“The most dangerous part of the sea ain’t the surface. It’s what lies beneath, where ye can’t see what’s lyin’ in wait for ye.”_

_“Don’t let yer guard down, lass.”_

She looked down at her bracelet and the feeling of dread in the pit of Asuka’s stomach got heavier. Something within her felt as if it were screaming that she wasn’t ready, that she would never be ready.

With all that in mind, she tossed the orb into the blue pillar- answering with a solid “no.” The pipe in the ceiling retracted and the pillars collapsed into the floor, where they were covered up once again. The wall with the sliding puzzle split in two and the two halves swung forward, revealing a hallway. With a bang, the doors separating Tadatomo and Melusine from Asuka swung open, and they walked nervously up to Asuka. She glanced at the two of them, then nodded. Asuka stood up straight and walked through the newly opened door.

The door shut behind them with an echoing metal slam. The hallway they entered was big enough for the three of them to walk side by side with ample room to spare. It was cold, white, and futuristic. Nothing about it worked to ease Asuka’s tension. They hurried through the corridor, seeing five doors ahead.

_Five? That’s more than any other time…_

As they reached the doors, the corridor opened up into a large circular room. With three hallways coming off of it, counting the one Asuka had just arrived from. The five doors were labeled **2** and **4** on the left, **6** and **8** on the right, and the number **9** in the middle. They heard the sound of multiple sets of heavy footsteps and turned to see Ahab, Shiro, and Alice come from one hallway, and Shuichi, Ose, and Nyarlathotep exit from the other.

“You’re all alright!” Asuka yelled, perhaps a bit more enthusiastically than she meant.

Shuichi laughed. “Of course we are, why shouldn’t we be? I said it before, I need to get back to my dear baby brother, and none of you are going to die on my watch.”

Shiro rolled his eyes. “We appreciate the sentiment, Shuichi.”

The people around them rolled their eyes but smiled just the same. Despite this, there was an air of tenseness surrounding them. Once they had all grouped up around each other, the paths to the hallways closed, locking them into this room.

“Five different doors, huh?” Ose said, looking down at his bracelet. Before any of them could share their numbers with each other, however, there was a sliding sound from behind them. Asuka turned around and saw that directly across the room from the number **9** door was a door that held the number **0.**  Asuka felt as if a cold wind had just blown through her.

_Zero!? Does this mean-_

Before she could even complete the thought, the door opened. Walking out from the doorway was a figure cloaked in black, wearing a gas mask that covered their face. Asuka froze.

“Zero!” Tadatomo barked, and threw something through the air. The next second, Zero was holding a kunai in one hand. Tadatomo staggered back.

“How… how did you catch that…? Just who are you…?”

Zero shook their head, then tossed it back to Tadatomo, who caught it, serving only to confuse him further. They looked across the 9 of them, taking notice of the wary and threatening looks they were giving them. Zero turned and looked directly at Asuka.

“Asuka, the choice you made back in that room. You said ‘no,’ did you not?”

Asuka flinched at the warbled voice and nodded. “So what if I did? What’s it to you?”

Zero sighed and, in a move none of them expected, lowered their hood and unclasped the gas mask, letting it fall to the floor. Brown hair tumbled down past her shoulders, adorned with white flower ornaments. She stared at the 9 of them in turn, her eyes finally settling on Asuka.

“Perhaps, somehow, you have a subtle recollection of my past attempts. Ever since the first time you successfully reached that point, you have not once selected that you were ready for what happens next.” She then added, softly, “No one should ever be ready for something like this.”

Ahab stomped his harpoon on the floor. “Spit it out, brat. Who are ye really!?”

She looked over the nine of them once more, then smiled- despite the niceness of the gesture, her expression was tainted with profound sorrow.

“My name is Akane Kurashiki.”


	6. The Beginning and the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zero's plan is revealed. What happens next might shock you!

The nine of them stared at Zero- at Akane. She stared back at them with a serious expression, though Asuka could have sworn that she saw a hint of relief in her eyes. She cleared her throat, breaking up the silence. The blunt reveal of her name had surprised all of them.

“You want answers, I suppose?” Akane smiled at them, then motioned to the number 0 door. “If you do, follow me through this door.”

“Hold on a minute.” Shiro glared at Akane. “How are we all supposed to go through one door? I thought your note said that we could only pass through a door with a maximum of 3 people?”

Akane smiled. “Ah, I’m glad you mentioned that. This door is… different from the others. I like to call this the ‘Zero door.’”

“Creative,” muttered Asuka.

Akane continued, ignoring Asuka’s comment. “There is only one condition to open the zero door, and that is that one person must have the number 0. As of right now,” Akane held up her wrist and showed them her number, “I am the only one here that has 0. Ose and Alice both have the number 1, Tadatomo and Shiro both have the number 2, Captain Ahab and Nyarlathotep both have the number 3, and Shuichi and Melusine have the number 4. Asuka alone has the number 9.”

Everyone looked down at their bracelets. She was right.

Shiro nodded. “So that’s how you came in here then?”

Akane smiled once again. “Exactly!” She then stuck her hand out toward the door, and it slid open. “Again, if you want the answers, come through here.”

Melusine took a step forward and clasped her hands together. “How are we supposed to know if this is not a trap? If you are the only key in or out of this door, you could easily trap us in there.”

It was Ose who answered this time. “I don’t know how far I would be willing to trust Zero- to trust Akane. However… I don’t think she would do something like that. Her true goal still has yet to be fulfilled after all, whatever that may entail.”

Akane sighed. “I’m not asking you to trust me, not yet anyway. I am asking you to at least hear me out. Give me the chance to explain why you are all here.”

Asuka walked toward the door, then motioned at everyone to follow her. She then turned to Akane. “Whatever your plan is, you don’t have to do it.”

Akane walked up to the zero door, which slid open before her. She turned her face toward Asuka. Her expression wasn’t one of malice or smugness. The only thing that Asuka could see reflected in her eyes was... pity. Regret. And even beyond that, a deep weariness. Akane broke eye contact and walked forward through the door, the nine of them following close behind her.

The walk down the hall was a short one, ending in another door labeled with a 0. Akane waved her arm in front of the door, and it slid open. Each of them warily stepped into the room waiting before them. Once everyone was through, Akane herself stepped through and the door closed behind her. The room they were in looked like a control room, filled with screens showing off the various escape rooms they had gone through already. Asuka immediately recognized the pool room and nursery, but there were others that she didn’t recognize. In one screen there was a laundry room, complete with large industrial dryers. Next to that screen was another, this time depicting a kitchen. There was a large black mark on the floor.

Alice stepped closer to the screen and sighed. “This was the first room the captain, Tadatomo, and myself went through. We had to detonate something, but it nearly went very wrong. It is a good thing Captain Ahab has such sharp reflexes.” Asuka smiled and looked over at another monitor. She recognized it immediately.

“Heh. Looks like the lucky lovebirds got their wish. Got any plans for the honeymoon? Try not to get too carried away, now! You hate to see them in a stretcher from getting just a bit too handsy!”

Asuka looked over and saw that Nyarlathotep was watching the same screen she was. The room was just the same as Asuka remembered it, covered in flowers and bathed in warm light. It was the wedding hall, the one she, Ahab, and Ose had gone through. Asuka heard a giggle from behind her and turned around.

Akane was staring at the display, dreamy-eyed. “You know Asuka, I’ve seen you three go through that room time and time again. Each and every time, it’s been just as cute as before.”

“Er, thank you?”

“So then… you really have jumped timelines. I told the others of the possibility... and I'm sure Alice must have done the same. It is quite a shock to hear it from the culprit herself. Akane, may I ask how many times you’ve seen that scene?” Ose chimed in.

Akane looked off to the side, holding her arms. She had a very upset look on her face. “...too many, I’m afraid. This specific room is, in my opinion, the most important room that I made in this game. I said before that those two are always cute, but…” She grimaced. “It makes this that much harder, as well.”

Asuka, now thoroughly uncomfortable, asked, “Make what harder?

Akane didn’t answer. Instead, she walked over to the back of the room where there were was a single large display over a set of controls. There was a single office chair in front of these controls, where Akane sat down. She then motioned for everyone to sit in the nine chairs behind her. The nine of them exchanged concerned glances, then sat down.

Akane swiveled around, took a deep breath, then began to speak. “You all remember that movie you watched back during the last time you all met up, right?”

“Of course,” Shuichi answered in his usual confident tone of voice. “If I remember correctly, it boiled down to ‘so long as Asuka exists, the world has a chance.’ Am I correct?”

Akane smiled. “Close. It is true that should someone like Asuka exist, the beings from the other worlds may not destroy this one. The difference is that it doesn’t have to be… specifically Asuka. If there were someone who was the same type of anomaly that Asuka is, but bore a different name or appearance, even if they acted in a different manner, then they would still have a chance at saving this world.”

Asuka was bewildered. “How in the world could I save the world? I can hardly do anything without my friends backing me up.”

“Of course. That is, ultimately, your greatest strength. These so-called ‘gods’ that would fight for dominance and turn the Earth to rubble, they are filled with nothing but pride and arrogance. They have no need for friends, they would rather just get things done through their own power. I think you’ll find that having friends to back you up is far greater than the enemies you will have to face. Besides, that overconfidence is the only reason that my plan hasn’t fallen apart.”

“What do you mean?” Shiro asked.

Akane sighed. “My plan, the very reason you 9 are here, is designed to make the greatest chance for humanity to live on and for those beings from other realms to fail in their conquest. With the vast powers available to them, there’s no way that my actions with the Morphogenetic Field could go unnoticed.”

Shiro frowned. “If you are trying to undermine them, why would they just ignore you?”

“Because of one thing, Shiro. I am mortal.”

“Heh.” Ahab puffed out some smoke. “They’re so full of ‘emselves that they see ye as incapable of hurtin’ them. Figures.”

Akane gave him a sympathetic smile. “You’re exactly right, Captain.”

“So then, what is your plan?” Tadatomo gritted through his teeth. He was still holding his kunai.

“The end goal of this plan is to ensure that Asuka over there becomes a constant.”

Asuka leaned forward in her chair. “What do you mean ‘a constant?’”

Akane folded her arms. “I said before that your existence is an anomaly. The sheer act of forcing 23 different souls, or even more, is something that is very, very unlikely. To put it bluntly, the odds of you existing to sit here listening to me were something like .003%. The end goal of this is to make sure that you exist in every single timeline.”

Shuichi sat up straight. “Intriguing. How, exactly, do you intend on doing that?”

Akane turned around, flipped a switch, and typed something out. On the large display there showed a single yellow line reaching from the bottom of the screen to the top. Little arrows pointed up along the path.

“Picture this as a timeline reaching up to the present day. As you can see, the timeline looks pretty linear. However…” Akane typed something out and hit enter. Immediately, branches came off of specific points on the line and continued upward. “...These represent choices, decisions that could have gone one way or another. As a result of these decisions existing, we create a timeline for each decision made. Then, along that new timeline, we may have even more decisions.” She hit one more switch, and the branching paths gained branches of their own. It grew and grew until the screen was covered in yellow lines.

_Woah._

“Now picture that even just one single line here has Asuka or someone like her.” Akane hit a button, and every line but the original turned red. “Each red line indicates an Earth that has been destroyed, billions of people dead. There are zero options for those timelines.”

Ose stared at the single yellow line. “I don’t mean to be rude, but if we’re on the yellow timeline, why should we really worry about those others? There will always be timelines where bad things happen, after all.”

Akane smiled, but it somehow didn’t reach her eyes. “Were this a normal situation, I would agree with you. Sometimes you have to forsake timelines for the sake of a good one. However…” She hit another button, and the part of the screen they had seen shrunk down into the bottom half of the screen. With another button press, each line slowly continued up the screen until…

_What!?_

A red line shot out from the sides of each of the red timelines, cutting off the yellow line. Akane looked up at the screen. “What you’re seeing here is the powers in other timelines denying the existence of anything other than itself.”

“What… what does that mean?” Tadatomo said nervously.

“Essentially, the powers in the dimensions that ‘won’ send the _idea_ that they have won through the Morphogenetic Field to the timelines where they would not win. Normally this would result in nothing. It would be like putting the knowledge of their victory into a library- it exists, but it just sits there. However, because of the sheer number of timelines attempting this, the concept of their victory becomes a _constant_ in each timeline.” She hit another button and the paths all continued. The yellow line was now dark red. Akane swiveled around to face them.

Shiro balked. “If what you’re saying is true, that means it isn’t even possible to win!”

Akane nodded. “Exactly. Hence the need for this plan.” She turned back around and hit another button. The timelines all shifted back to the previous state, with red lines and a single yellow line filling the screen. She then typed something out and hit enter once again. This time, the timelines continued onwards, and slowly pulled close to each other. Eventually, every line convened on the same spot along the yellow timeline. Akane hit another switch, and they paused.

“This is what everything has been building toward. My plan is, simply put, to converge the timelines into a similar point- instead of it being their victory, it is instead one where Asuka’s existence is guaranteed. By making Asuka’s existence a universal ‘constant,’ it gives the possibility of success to people. The ratio of doomed worlds to worlds with a chance for success won’t be so heavily skewed, so any attempts to interfere would just be wasted effort.”

Tadatomo scoffed. “How are we supposed to believe you? You speak like you were there.”

Akane gave a small, sad smile. “That’s because I was. In fact, I was in one of these ‘golden’ timelines. Back then, we had someone very similar to Asuka here, though he went by a different name. I grew to be friends with him but… we reached that point. The point where everything started to go wrong. They, quite literally, tore our world apart.” She glanced at Asuka, an odd expression in her eyes- like she was reliving something from the past.

Asuka was now very confused. “If you were there, how are you… here?”

Akane looked over toward the monitor showing the wedding room. From the way they were viewing it, they could see the stained glass window of the sobbing girl. “In a way, I was fortunate. I had some experience in the Morphogenetic Field and how it functioned. I was able to transfer my consciousness to the body of myself in an alternate timeline. The timeline I shifted into didn’t have anyone like him or you, Asuka. I witnessed the death of strangers, my friends, even the ones I loved most, again and again. I went through countless timelines, seeing the world torn to pieces over and over. Each time I tried to do something different, to prepare for what would come, but it always just blew up in my face.”

She drew a heavy breath. “Thing is, I've had this plan for a long, long time. I checked over it, again and again, making sure that everything was right. It took several tries, but I succeeded in coercing the Morphogenetic Field into suggesting to the gamemasters that the app be worked into it. This way, the app could connect people to the field that needed to be connected, otherwise, it would be impossible. Of course, I’m talking about the 9 of you.”

Asuka looked at everyone. Tadatomo’s grip was slack on his kunai, whereas Alice’s grip was hard on her rabbit. Ahab was smoking his pipe, his eye closed. Shuichi and Shiro were both staring intently at the converged timelines. Melusine was frowning but looked sympathetically at Akane. Ose’s grin had fallen from his face, leaving a stoic expression. His crown was glowing faintly. Nyarlathotep, however, looked completely calm.

Akane sighed and turned back to the screen. “For Asuka, it was easy. So many of her souls also bore a connection to the Morphogenetic Field, so pulling her back here was easy, by way of my sacred artifact.”

Shuichi looked down from the timelines. “What is your artifact?”

Akane laughed. “Can’t you tell already? My artifact is this building itself.”

“Hold on, how does that let you… pull someone through the Morphogenetic Field? I understand now how the puzzles could be constructed, but the last part doesn’t make any sense.”

Akane folded her arms together and leaned back in her chair. “Simply put, my artifact has two uses. One allows me to shape the building to my will, and the next ties it so strongly to the Morphogenetic Field that I can do things that would ordinarily be impossible. For instance, I was able to use Asuka’s connections with you all to pull you back here. If you hadn’t known her from the start, you could not be here. I also have a lot of control over what goes on in here, like with these bracelets.”

All of them looked down at their bracelets as she said this.

“It overloads your rule, but not in the way that generates an aberrant being- an exception. In this case, it would simply override your rule to generate some effect that would result in your death.”

Shiro’s mouth fell open. “If you need us for… whatever this is, why put the bracelets on us? Why endanger our lives like that!?”

Akane didn’t say anything. She just looked up at the converged timelines.

When she next spoke, her voice cracked a bit. “The question on all of your minds, I have no doubt, is ‘what are you trying to do that would converge the timelines like that?’ In order to create something that would attract all these timelines to one spot, to cement one event in existence, we would need an overwhelming amount of energy blasted through the Morphogenetic Field. My artifact can work as an input for this energy, so don’t have any worries about that. The amount of energy, however, is something that is incredibly dangerous.”

Alice spoke up softly, her face white as a sheet. “...Exceptions. You plan to have us make exceptions on purpose.”

Akane turned and nodded. She wasn’t smiling anymore. “Yes, I do. That is the only way to ensure Asuka’s existence. However, we need approximately 8 times the amount of energy that an exception creates. I’m sure you don’t have to stretch that far to realize what this means.”

_No… she can’t…_

Asuka winced as she felt a dull pain in her head.

“How can you expect us to do that!?” Shiro was yelling now. “So many people could die!”

Akane stood up out of her chair, a hard look on her face. “So what!? Do you even realize how many people would die if we don’t do this? Everyone! Everyone will die, no ifs or buts. All your friends, all your family, everyone you have ever known will be gone .” Akane sat down and breathed deeply. “I’m sorry, Shiro, I really am. I know you’ve caused an exception before, and that it was terrifying. You have every right to be scared about something like this. However,” her face grew steely, “think of what you could lose if you don’t.”

Shiro reeled it back slightly, but he remained defiant. “For us to do something like this, we would need to believe you, to believe everything you just said. This is a massive commitment for a blind leap of faith!”

“Easy there, baby. I’d hate to see you fall apart before you need to.” Nyarlathotep, who looked entirely unphased, was now grinning at Shiro. “If you can’t find it in your little ol’ heart to trust our Junebug here, listen to me instead. Everything she said about the future ‘falling into ruin?’ Every bit of it was true. I’ve been there, done that. I know what happens in the future of every single timeline, ya dig? Let me say, none look nearly as crispy as the one she’s aiming for.”

Evidently, this surprised Akane. “Nyarlathotep, you know what happens in the future I’m shooting for?”

Nyarlathotep laughed maniacally. “Know? Lady, that’s the single timeline that I don’t know what happens. That’s what makes it exciting!”

Shiro sat back down in shock, wringing his hands together.

"Heh, you're even better at jumping than I am, Nyarlathotep." Akane fiddled absentmindedly with her bracelet. “Well, if that’s all squared away, I believe I have just one thing to inform you of before we deal with the procedure. Namely, when this is.”

Shuichi was sitting on the edge of his seat. “We’re in the past, are we not?”

Akane smiled. “That we are. The Morphogenetic Field exists regardless of time so, while it takes more effort, it is entirely possible to transmit a consciousness from the present to the past.”

Shuichi had a glint in his eye as if he had stumbled across the very thing he was searching for. “I thought as much, but what real significance does this have?”

“This wouldn’t mean much, were it not for the method I used to get the 8 of you here.”

Ose’s ears perked up. “Oh? And what would that be?”

Akane now began to look slightly uncomfortable. “It’s different for Asuka, as she had a very strong connection to the field in the first place- pulling her consciousness away was easy. For the 8 of you, however, I had to resort to using an ally of mine’s sacred artifact. His sacred artifact dealt with the Morphogenetic Field far more than mine, especially when it came to transmitting information. Using that combined with this allowed us to send not just your consciousness across the field, but also your bodies. Without that, this wouldn’t have worked.”

Ahab grunted. “Good grief, what happened to simple plans? Are ye tryin' ta tell us that we have doubles in this world?”

“Yes, that’s correct. Each of you has or will have a double in this world. The only exceptions to this are Asuka and me. Now, before I tell you what I would like you to do, I need to ask you all something. Do you believe me?”

The 9 of them exchanged glances.

_Do I believe her? Is… is she in the right?_

Before Asuka could come to a conclusion, Ose stood up. “I may not trust you per se, but I do know that you speak the truth.”

_Huh?_

He held up his crown with a sigh. “In my many fantastic years in these myriad worlds, I’ve been many things. Astronaut, monarch, doctor… but my role has always been that of one who uncovers information.” He glances toward Asuka and puts his crown atop his head, turning into the older, suave version of himself. “As you see me now… this is who I am. My experience in the field, gathering secrets and seeing to the truth hidden within lies, it all leads me to believe that Akane here is telling the truth. She doesn’t bear the mark of a liar. That said, I believe she is hiding something… something beyond that which I’m aware of, that is. But I digress. I’m in, Akane Kurashiki."

_It… It’s all true?_

Shuichi stood up next, unperturbed by Ose’s dramatic physical change. “I believe you. Everything Akane’s said makes perfect sense to me.” He turns to face her. “Besides, if your plan is really the only way to give my dear little brother a chance, I have to take it.”

Melusine stood up as well. “I think the plan makes sense as well. I won’t allow Monsieur Licht to come to harm, and if I could ensure the existence of his best friend, I couldn’t live with myself if I said otherwise.”

“Ose is right. I trust that he can tell the difference between someone spouting lies and one dispensing truth. And I know well that Shuichi would never dare tell a lie.” Alice got up as well. “I may not have believed you had you not mentioned the idea of integrating the app through the Morphogenetic Field. That is something that only a very few number of people know. Even beyond that, your grasp of the app is greater than it should be, were you to be lying.”

Nyarlathotep stood. “Was there ever any doubt? Honey, you snatched my wig right off my scalp!”

Shiro got up as well, his hands trembling. “I’m not thrilled about making exceptions, but if this is truly the only way, then I can’t help but believe you.”

Tadatomo hopped up from his seat. “I must be willing to sacrifice anything for my liege. I believe you.”

Ahab smirked as he looked at Asuka and stood up as well. “To protect his sailors- that’s me duty as a captain. I’ll follow ye, brat.”

Asuka looked at her eight allies, entirely conflicted.

_What is this… feeling? It feels like my heart is going to rip apart… but…_

“Asuka? How about you?”

It was Shiro, his voice quavering nervously.

_He put on such a brave face there, throughout all of this._

Asuka made up her mind and stood up with the rest of them.

“As much as I didn’t want to believe you, that I just wanted to try and convince you to let us go free, I can’t do that anymore. If I said you were lying, I think I’d just be trying to hide from the truth. So… count me in.”

Akane got up and stood in front of them, looking massively relieved, though with still a hint of sorrow in her eyes. “Thank you, everyone. With any luck, this will be the final time I ever have to see this again.”

She walked over to the zero door, and they all followed her through it. Once they had reached the numbered doors again, they stopped.

Akane stood in front of the number 9 door. “Now is the most important part in all of this. If this is messed up then everything will have been for nothing, so pay attention. The only thing you have to do in that room you’re coming up in is to create an exception. As you should know, any original owners of their sacred artifacts will be overloaded themselves, and they will become the aberrant being, the exception. This applies to Ose, Melusine, and Nyarlathotep. For the rest of you, the power will manifest in the form of the original owner of the artifact. My rule can hold them long enough for the 5 of you to leave and meet up, but the amount of power they have will be incredible. In order for my rule to send it through the Morphogenetic Field, one thing needs to happen.”

She gulped and avoided Asuka’s eyes. “The app must be closed improperly.”

Shiro’s face went pale. “If it closes improperly, won’t the exceptions be loosed out into Tokyo? At that point this wouldn’t save anyone, would it?”

The grin was gone from Shuichi’s face. “Not necessarily. Regardless, this needs to be done. We’ll have to come up with something when we all group up again, right? No use worrying about it now. Who’s with me?”

He stepped in front of the number 8 door. Melusine walked up to it and, together, they walked through, the door shutting behind them.

“I guess we’ll see you later then, hopefully,” Shiro said, then went with Tadatomo through the number 4 door.

Alice and Ose nodded at each other and followed suit through the number 2 door.

“Ye better know what ye’re doin’, brat.” Ahab then stomped through the number 6 door with Nyarl, leaving Asuka and Akane alone.

Akane smiled at her, that same rueful smile she continuously had on her face. “Should we get going, then? The clock is ticking.”

Asuka followed Akane- followed Zero through the number 9 door. All the while, her headache only got worse. They walked down a poorly lit hallway, identical in decor to the first one she had come through. When they finally reached the door at the end, Asuka wasn’t surprised to see that they were back in that lobby where she had met up with everyone.

Akane looked up at the top of the staircase, back where they had all come out after their initial puzzle. “You know, I actually put myself into this game a number of times.”

Asuka stepped back, surprised. “Why?”

“For as much variance as possible, I suppose. Unfortunately, as close as I got to everyone, it wasn’t ever enough. There was something about introducing myself as a factor from the beginning that resulted in everyone’s actions going… off course. It was amusing at the time, though. You all are really quite pleasant.”

“Thank you, I guess?” Asuka wasn’t quite sure how to feel about Akane. She could tell that she was hiding something, something very important.

Akane went over to the fountain and sat down. “This fountain was your idea, actually. This lobby didn’t originally have a fountain here, but you said that it could use some livening up. You even described the way the statues should look! At the time I thought it was rather silly, if not a bit crude, but I ended up adding it anyway. Perhaps it was out of some sense of… sentimentality.”

Asuka stood in front of Akane and let out a deep breath. “Akane, what aren’t you telling me? Something’s been off this entire time, like my own soul is telling me not to trust you. Maybe that’s the other souls inside of me, maybe that’s something to do with the _Morphogenetic Field_ , or maybe even just my intuition. Please tell me, Akane. Tell what’s going to happen to my friends.”

Akane’s eyes reflected pure sorrow as she opened her mouth.

//

“I wonder,” Alice said, holding her rabbit, “why you would agree to this? You know full well what Shuichi meant.”

Ose shrugged, a smile on his older face. When he spoke, it was in a deeper, more confident tone of voice.

“I may not seem it, but there are people that I would prefer to protect. Not the least of which is myself, of course.” He winked at her and strode into the middle of the room, spinning his crown around his finger. It was large and empty, with nothing more than a numberless door on the opposite side from that which they had come in through.

Alice closed her eyes. “You are the original owner of your sacred artifact. By walking through here, you signed a death warrant.”

He turned around, fixing his catlike gaze on her, a tint of sadness permeating his expression. “Couldn’t I say the same about you, dear gamemaster?”

//

Melusine stepped into a large, empty room, her mind preoccupied. “Shuichi, may I ask you something?”

Shuichi pulled out his sacred artifact and began tapping through something. “Of course, anything.”

“When you said ‘not necessarily,’ what did you mean?”

Shuichi’s finger stopped. Despite his cool exterior, she could see it trembling slightly. “I am… very sorry, Melusine. I think you may already have an idea of what is going to happen to us, do you not?”

“Like Akane said, being the original owner of my sacred artifact, I will be flooded with power, correct? Whereas your rule will overload and create an aberrant being in the form of the original owner.”

Shuichi nodded. “You are exactly right. Now, in order to make sure that these exceptions don’t leave the confines of the app, there is one thing that must occur.”

Melusine whispered, “Both parties have to die, don’t they.”

“...Yes.”

//

“Hey, glasses.” Tadatomo walked up to a pedestal in the middle of the room, his voice shaking ever so slightly. “What’s going to happen to us?”

Shiro rubbed his hand across his eyes, wiping away the tears that were forming in them. “If everything that they said is true and 8 exceptions are summoned tonight, we only have one choice to get rid of them, to close the app improperly while not leaving the exceptions to destroy the world we’re trying to save.”

Tadatomo staggered. “What!? Couldn’t we just… have everyone kiss and make up, getting rid of the exceptions that way? Like back at Roppongi!” Shiro shook his head. “Why not?”

Shiro was wiping his glasses now. “With an army of allies behind us, we can take out one, maybe two exceptions. Seeing as how you aren’t an original owner of your artifact, our numbers will be cut down to 5 because Melusine, Nyarlathotep, and Ose are all original wielders. And then I doubt Zero would go against her own plan, especially now that it’s so close to being complete. Us versus 8 different exceptions…? It’s not possible, not by any means.”

Tadatomo said nothing and just stared at the numberless door.

//

“My dear Captain, I have a job for you,” Nyarlathotep said, surprisingly coherent.

Ahab pulled the pipe out of his mouth. “...What is it?”

“My time here is almost up. I’ve done all I can, you see. Gotta leave it to the next generation of me! When our powers clash, that’s the end of my chapter. In order to do everything properly, the app will have to be closed with Asuka being the only one alive.”

“Hold up, what do ye mean?”

“C’mon Cap’n, keep up! In order to make sure that an exception doesn’t stick around, the rules that spawned it have to be defunct. For us who are the original owners of our artifacts, we’ll vanish from existence when the app is closed, but only as long as the inheritors who clashed with us are kaput.”

Ahab gripped his harpoon. “...I see.”

“I’d wager that Asuka is going to find out about this and try and stop it. That’s where the favor comes in. You need to stop her from saving you, from saving any of you.”

“Good grief.” He smirked then added, “If that be what it takes to save me sailors, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Then for now…” A wicked grin spread across Nyarlathotep’s face, and his box glowed. “Let’s dance, honey.”

//

“Why would you lie to them like that!?” Asuka spat. “They went through those doors so that they could die!?”

Akane frowned and couldn’t meet Asuka’s eyes. “You heard Ose- I didn’t lie. And… they all know what they got into. In each pair, there is someone who has a good idea of what closing the app like that will mean. Ose and Alice, Nyarlathotep, Shuichi, and even your friend Shiro… and myself.”

Asuka opened her mouth to yell at Akane some more, but she cut her off. “Listen, they are going to start fighting with each other soon enough, and there’s one thing you need to know before they do.”

“What? You really want me to go along with your plan so that my friends can die? I won’t do it. I can’t do it.”

Akane stepped closer to Asuka, her fists balled up. “Listen to me! Even though none of you remember it, you all are my friends too. If I had another choice, I would take it, believe me! They’re not even the only ones who will die, you know. When the app closes, the energy will blast throughout the entire ward. Hundreds will die and even more will lose their homes. And as for me,” She gripped her arms tight, “sending the energy will take as much strength as I have. If it works properly, my body won’t be able to exist any longer.”

Asuka stepped away from her, her head pounding. Akane refused to back down.

“Asuka, I know you don’t want to do this, but listen. You have to be the one who closes the app, and you have to be fast about it. Once we are all… gone… the exceptions will remain, and they’ll only vanish once the app closes.”

Asuka felt a cold numbness spreading inside her, and she held up her phone.

_How… How can I…?_

The ground began to shake, the chandelier swinging side to side.

Akane looked sadly at her.

“It’s begun.”

//

“Would you look at that,” Nyarlathotep got out, a massive grin plastered across his face. Sprouting from his chest was Ahab’s harpoon. “I’ve been impaled.” His features were contorting, and green tendrils shot out from his body, connecting him to all the clones he had made. Slowly, the tendrils pulled them closer and closer together, until all of Nyarlathotep’s selves were grouped around each other. They then shone with a green light, and their bodies melted and contorted into an utterly indescribable form. Behind it was something so bright that Ahab couldn’t look at it directly without blinding himself.

“...Ye decide the time and place ye die, eh? Heh...” Ahab picked up his harpoon, which had fallen out of the thing that used to be Nyarlathotep, and sprinted to the door opposite of the one he had come in through.

"Looks like I've decided, lass."

//

The walls shook around Tadatomo and Shiro.

Shiro winced. “I guess it started, then.”

Tadatomo scowled. “Yes, it must have. Now then, how do we cause an exception?” Shiro looked shocked, and Tadatomo forced a grin onto his face. “Don’t give me that look, as long as I still exist in this world already, I can still get my revenge for my father. My only other goal is to serve my liege.”

Shiro held out his book and activated it, summoning forth one of his devils. “Attack Tadatomo!” He commanded.

“What!?” Tadatomo dodged the swipe of the devil and grabbed his kunai. “What is the meaning of this! Have you gone mad!?”

“I only wish that were the case,” Shiro muttered.

Tadatomo dodged another swipe and threw his kunai. It caught the devil right in what was presumably its little heart. It fell to the ground and keeled over. Shiro forced himself to stand there, trying his best to stay calm.

“Now… use your artifact to revive it.”

Tadatomo pulled out his scroll and cautiously revived the dead devil, a curious expression on his face. “I am… not sure I understand.” He glanced at the devil, which was now trying to hug Shiro.

Shiro wiped a tear from his eye as he activated his tome. “There’s one thing I can do with my artifact, something that Shuichi and Alice informed me of earlier. I can… move the time of someone’s death. Meaning…”

“...You resurrect them.” A grin formed on the canine’s face as he looked at Shiro, though there was a twinge of fear reflected in his eyes. “If I can only control them when they are dead, and you revive them…”

Shiro nodded gravely. “To put it simply, your reviving would no longer have any point which you could have done it, and your control over the devil would cause a direct conflict with my actions.” He looked down at the floor, then said, his voice barely above a whisper, “...I’m sorry it has to end this way.”

Tadatomo nodded. “If this is what has to be done… I am glad I did not have to face it alone.”

Shiro smiled, ignoring a tear running down his face as he completed the ritual to resurrect his devil. There was a flash of light and the devil disappeared with a squeak, replaced with two massive, indescribable forms. Without a moment’s delay, the two of them ran through the blank door.

//

Melusine pulled out her picture of herself and looked at it as if she wanted it to be the last thing she ever saw. The rumbling around them grew louder.

“What is that, Melusine?”

Melusine wiped away a tear, then showed it to him. “It’s a picture Monsieur Licht made for me last Christmas. Although, I suppose that means this doesn’t exist yet, depending on when we are. I believe the only reason I have it is because of how my rule operates.”

Shuichi’s mouth widened in a grin, although it didn’t seem to reach his eyes. “That’s it! That picture you have, it’s the key to the exception.”

“What on Earth do you mean?”

Shuichi held out his artifact. “This tablet has knowledge over the past, but because we are in the past, the time between here and when we were taken from is absent. That includes last Christmas.” He trailed off, and his expression great deadly serious. “Are you ready?”

Melusine took one long look at her picture, then held it out to Shuichi, who activated his artifact. The artifact, scanning “proof of a future past” broke down, unable to parse it. With another flash of light, the rumbling around them got more powerful. Shuichi ran as hard as he could away from the two beings behind him. One in the form of the original owner of his tablet. The other was a giant blue dragon, wings spread wide across the room.

“Please forgive me, Melusine.”

//

As the shaking grew more powerful, Alice and Ose stared at each other.

“It was a pleasure to speak with you,” the girl said, clutching her rabbit.

“No, no. The pleasure was all mine. Tell the others I said goodbye, alright?” He then held up his crown, a bright light spreading across the room. Shadows were cast across the walls, silhouettes of Ose in various disguises. A police officer, a judge, a soldier, an actor… and, of course, a younger version of himself.

Alice sighed, her gaze lingering on the myriad outlines. “If that is what you wish, I would be honored. Farewell, Ose.”

She then activated her rabbit, turning reality into fiction around Ose, while the leopard’s crown showed to the world a truth of his own making. With one last blinding flash, Alice turned and ran, ran before she could see that terrible sight. The sight of two exceptions- one who she had once known.

//

The ground beneath them was now shaking violently.

Akane steadied Asuka. “They’re here.”

She heard the sound of four sliding doors and turned to see Alice, Ahab, Tadatomo, Shiro, and Shuichi come out. The doors shut close behind them. Each of them was pale.

Asuka felt her legs go weak, and she sat down on the fountain’s side. “Where… Where are the others…?”

They all walked up to Asuka, but none of them could look her in the eye.

“Ose…” Alice whispered, her voice cracking. “Ose wanted me to tell you all that he said ‘goodbye.’”

_No…_

The rumbling got louder and, with a deafening bang, the floor exploded beneath their feet, sending them flying.

The next thing Asuka knew, she was sitting in a giant pile of rubble. She got to her feet, propping herself on the broken rocks around her. She looked up.

_I… I’m outside…_

It was clearly night outside, but shining in the sky were 8 beings, all grouped next to each other. They looked like they were fighting against some invisible barrier. Every so often, bolts of electricity, fire, wind, and all sorts of other things would strike the ground and destroy more and more.

With a start, she realized that the demolished building directly in front of her was the same one that she had just escaped from. Barely managing to stay rational, she ran back inside.

“Shiro? Captain? Alice, Shuichi? Akane? Tadatomo, where are you?” Asuka yelled into the piles of rock and debris.

“Good grief, brat, stop yer howlin’. We all be fine.”

Asuka turned around and saw all six of them, dirty but otherwise unharmed. Unable to stop herself, Asuka ran forward and wrapped herself around Ahab. She sobbed, slow at first, then harder. Ahab tousled her hair, then gently pushed her off of him.

Alice looked up at the exceptions tearing apart the ward. “I see you did contain them within this ward.”

Akane winced. “It was the best I could do. Anything denser and they would break free.”

Shiro’s voice shook. “Now we… how do we… take the next step?’

_The… the next step? They can’t-_

Tadatomo focused on something beyond them. Turning around, Asuka saw exactly what it was. Standing in the destroyed lounge, standing tall despite the walls around it crumbling, was the zero door.

There was a weary smile across Akane’s face. “Now you see the real reason I had you wear those bracelets. If I open the number zero door and don’t go through with you, your artifacts will be overloaded in the same way I described earlier. Your deaths would be… guaranteed.” Shiro, Tadatomo, Shuichi, and Alice all looked nervously at each other and walked forward toward the door.

“No!” Asuka tried to run forward, but someone held her from behind.

“Easy there, brat. There ain’t nothin’ ye can do.”

“No! No, I can’t… I can’t accept that. There has to be another way! There’s always another way! Let me go!” She struggled and fought, but Ahab’s grip stayed firm. “Please…” Asuka choked out, tears running down her face. “Please don’t do this….”

Alice stepped forwards toward the door, and Akane moved her hand in front of it so it slid open. Alice took a look back at Asuka.

“I am sorry, Asuka. Your life did not need to be this difficult. Please, forgive me. Forgive us.” She then stepped through the door. Akane withdrew her wrist, and the door closed. Alice’s bracelet beeped, and her rabbit immediately turned black. It sprang from Alice’s hands, sharp razors coming out its arms. Then, in a matter of seconds, the rabbit sliced Alice into pieces and fell back to the floor with a wet thud. It was now stained red, and Alice was nowhere to be seen.

“No… No! Alice!” She struggled harder against Ahab, but he wouldn’t budge. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and that numb feeling spread further throughout her body. “Please let me go… please let me do something…”

_Please… anything…_

Tadatomo took a step toward the door.

“I’m sorry that you have to see this, my liege. Forgive me.”

Asuka’s eyes widened and she screamed as he, too, stepped forward through the 0 door. His bracelet beeped just like Alice’s, and he started sweating. A second later and he was on the ground, screaming and clutching his stomach. His torment was short-lived, as his screaming eventually stopped. His body was now charred black, evidently burnt like a fire from the inside. His body disintegrated like fine ash.

Asuka’s knees went weak, and Ahab helped her to the ground, kneeling beside her.

_Please let me go…_

She couldn’t muster the strength to say anything.

Shuichi clasped Shiro on the shoulder. “I really do wish you had joined our guild, though I admit that you have a fine guild master. You would have gone far!” He let go and stepped toward the door, but Shiro grabbed him.

_Yes! Shiro, stop him! Please… please stop him…_

“Let’s go together, Shuichi. I… I don’t know if I’m strong enough to do this on my own.”

Asuka could feel the tears running down her face, but she didn’t feel anything. A vast, icy numbness had spread through her entire body.

Shiro turned to face Asuka, tears streaming in rivulets down his face. “I’m sorry, Asuka. If there’s one thing you’ve taught me, it’s that I should always do the right thing. And this… I’ve decided that this is the right thing to do. Please… live on, for us.”

Together, they stepped through the zero door. Asuka watched as bits and pieces of Shuichi turned to numbers and flowed into his tablet, watched as his skin, muscles, organs, and bones disappeared until all that was left was his sacred artifact. Shiro’s book, meanwhile, floated into the air. Swarms of giant devils came out and, with sickening crunching noises, ate Shiro, leaving behind not even a scrap of his clothing.

She felt Ahab’s warm arms- the last warmth she could even feel- release from around her. She grabbed out with her hand, even though there was nothing in front of her.

_No… not Ahab… don’t take him…_

“Watch out!” 

Before Ahab reached the door, Akane leaped forward and pushed Ahab, then screamed in pain. One of the blasts of wind must have caught a piece of debris, which sailed into the room and landed directly on Akane’s legs- and crushed the zero door.

_Now… now he can’t die! Now he won’t die!_

A single light of hope shone in Asuka’s heart, and she felt the numbness recede.

“C-Captain, you know what you have to do,” Akane said, her voice straining under the pain of having her legs crushed.

_What?_

Ahab smiled at Asuka and picked up his harpoon. “Out of all the sailors I’ve had, I’ve never grown close ta anyone like I did ye, Asuka. I… I always pushed everyone away, tryin’ to keep them from formin’ a bond with me- but ye stuck by me. Before that infernal DJ became that monster,” He looked up to the sky, staring at the 8 exceptions, “he told me that there was a good chance that ye wouldn’t remember anythin’ of what happened here- that Zero has some sort a’ plan for that. I don’t know how that’ll happen, but…” He turned away, a single teardrop falling down onto the rubble beneath his feet. “Whatever world is waitin’ fer ye, things will be different. Ye and I may not share the same relation we did here. I think... that’s fer the best. I’m not asking ye to forgive me, but please… forget this selfish captain.”

He took one last look at Asuka. She felt as if her heart were breaking in two. He then raised his harpoon in his left hand and brought the point down on his right arm, piercing the bracelet and his wrist.

_No… no…! Captain!_

“NOOOOOOO!” Asuka screamed, tears pouring down her face. Her head was pounding, her breaths were staggered and her cheeks soaked.

Ahab’s bracelet beeped. A harpoon, just like the one he had impaled himself with, shot out from nowhere, shooting through his right leg into the ground, pinning him in place. Another harpoon caught him through his left arm, forcing him to the ground.

He turned his head to take one last look at Asuka, giving her a final smile filled with love.

“Forget me... my cute sailor.”

Asuka cried out as one final harpoon shot out, stabbing him through his heart. Ahab fell back against the harpoons, which refused to let his body fall.

Captain Ahab was dead.

Asuka’s face went slack, tears streaming down her face. Less than an hour ago, everyone had been fine, alive. Now…

“Asuka!” Akane yelled at her. Asuka looked at her and saw that her face was a mess, her eyes bloodshot. “Please, end the app. End all of this!”

She felt her body moving of its own accord. She pulled out her phone and tapped to end the app. A warning popped up.

**Warning: Ending the app now will result in all changes being permanent.**

**Additionally, you will lose your status as an app user.**

**Do you still wish to close the app?**

Asuka didn’t care anymore. Tears splashing down onto her screen, she hit accept. There was a loud bang, and by the time Asuka regained her senses, Akane was gone, golden sparks flying upwards into the night sky. The exceptions disappeared as well, but the entire ward around her was destroyed. Ahab’s body had vanished, leaving behind four bloody harpoons embedded into the concrete where it had been.

_C-Captain... You can't... You're not…_

She stared blank-faced at the harpoons, hardly recognizing the tears that were spilling out from her eyes. She looked hard, as if trying to will him back into existence, to bring him back. Nothing happened. Something shining rolled down a piece of rubble toward her. It was that key, the same one she had seen Ahab put in his coat pocket back in the room they went through together- the one that showed her and Ahab happily together. The icing that had been on it was gone now- rubbed away as if the captain himself had been unable to keep himself from touching it. What little hope she had that he could come back vanished at that instant.

Akane’s plan had worked. Yet, as far as Asuka was concerned, the cost was too high. She felt her body stand up as if someone else were driving it. She walked through the ruined ward, seeing people mourning the bodies of their loved ones who had died because of the exceptions that they could not have seen. All around her were destroyed buildings, shops and homes and schools. Children screaming for their parents, parents calling for their children. It all combined into one loud mess of noise to Asuka. The pounding in her head was getting stronger.

After ages of walking, entirely oblivious to everything around her, Asuka realized that she was in the park where her first memories were from. Where she had first met Ryota.

_How am I supposed to tell him what happened… Or Kengo, or even the other Shiro? Everything... everything that happened...! I'll see them again, and they won't- they won't even know- like none of it ever happened..._

She squatted down on the grass, clutching her aching head. Her phone felt warm- too warm, yet she didn't care.

_I-I'm going to remember everything, but no one... no one else- How can I... how can I see any of them, look them in the eye... and act like nothing is wrong? Is this it? Am I just going to be... alone?_

Asuka opened her eyes and saw a bench with something underneath it. She looked underneath it, still in a daze. Upon seeing what it was, she staggered. Images of everyone rushed in her mind. Shiro, Shuichi, Tadatomo, Melusine, Alice, Ose, Nyarlathotep, Akane, and…

Sitting underneath the bench was Ahab’s missing hat.

Asuka’s mind, stressed beyond measure with everything she had experienced, so filled with sorrow at the loss of her friends, began to break. The more painful her head got, the brighter her phone began to shine. Her face, her entire body began to burn- the star on the back of her hand gleaming in the darkness.

_Please... just let me go away..._

Unable to hold on any longer, Asuka fell to the floor, and all was black.

//

_Have you ever had anyone you could truly call a friend?_

That question, in the back of your mind, forces your scattered thoughts into focus.

The world you see before you is pitch-black. It’s a world completely void of everything.

You can’t remember anything. Not a single thing at all.

Not your knowledge, your experiences, or your memories.

You can’t even remember the ones you love most.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked, hated, or even had a purely neutral feeling about the fic, please leave a review :]
> 
> (The part with Shiro and resurrection is mentioned at the end of chapter 8 of Tokyo Afterschool Summoners itself. Originally I had an explanation that I felt ~worked~ but it was a little shoehorned in. This way has more ground for being something that could happen in the game, I think.)

**Author's Note:**

> art done by yogurtart.tumblr.com, thefriz01.tumblr.com, and aireyverkhovensky.tumblr.com (title art)


End file.
